Hearing, visual impairment tied to increased CVD risk among older Chinese population
Key takeaways:
- Dual sensory impairment was associated with elevated CVD risk among middle-aged and elderly Chinese adults.
- Targeted treatments such as wearing glasses and using hearing aids may reduce risk for CVD.
Older Chinese adults with hearing, visual or dual sensory impairment had higher risk for CVD compared with those without sensory impairment, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
“Many previous studies have shown that visual impairment and hearing impairment alone have an impact on CVD, indicating that they may be a potential risk factor affecting the occurrence of CVD,” Jie He, BS, of Wuxi School of Medicine at Jiangnan University in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China, and colleagues wrote. “However ... the impact of visual impairment, hearing impairment and dual sensory impairment on the incidence rate of CVD in the Chinese population has not been fully elucidated.”
To assess the relationship between visual, hearing and dual sensory impairment and CVD among middle-aged and elderly Chinese adults, He and colleagues used data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a nationally representative longitudinal cohort survey. The study included 11,332 Chinese adults aged 45 years or older with available information about sensory impairment and no history of stroke and cardiac events at baseline, of which approximately half were women.
The researchers stratified participants into four groups based on self-reported hearing and visual impairment status: no sensory impairment (n = 1,332), visual impairment only (n = 2,257), hearing impairment only (n = 537) and dual sensory impairment (n = 7,206).
The primary outcome was incident CVD at a mean follow-up of 7 years. Secondary outcomes included cardiac events and strokes, separately.
Overall, 2,156 participants experienced CVD (stroke, n = 745; cardiac events, n = 1,605) during the 7-year follow-up.
The researchers observed that participants with visual impairment had a higher risk for CVD compared with those without visual impairment (HR = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.09-1.4).
Similarly, participants with hearing impairment had a higher risk for CVD compared with those without hearing impairment (HR = 1.2; 95% CI, 1.09-1.33), according to the study.
The researchers also observed an increased risk for CVD among participants with dual sensory impairment compared with. those without visual or hearing impairment (HR = 1.35; 95% CI, 1.16-1.57).
Additionally, they observed higher risk for CVD, stroke and cardiac events among participants with dual sensory impairment compared with those without sensory impairment or those with hearing or visual impairment only (P for all < .001).
“Hearing and visual impairment have a combined effect on the incidence of cardiovascular disease,” the researchers wrote. “Our findings suggest that consideration of sensory impairment and appropriate treatments such as use of glasses and hearing aids should be a target for further research to reduce cardiovascular disease.”
He and colleagues acknowledged several study limitations, including the use of participants’ self-reports to collect hearing and visual impairment status, which may contribute to information bias.
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