Skip to main content
GSA 2023 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Back
Symposium

Behavioral and Social Sciences

Hearing and Vision Loss: Epidemiologic and Intervention Implications for Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Mood Disorders

Thursday, November 9, 2023
8:00 AM – 9:30 AM ET
Location: Room 419

This session will discuss hearing loss and vision impairment as modifiable risk factors for social isolation, loneliness, and mood disorders from both epidemiologic and intervention perspectives. Prevalence of hearing and vision loss is high; two-thirds of older adults have hearing loss and over one-quarter have vision impairment. Hearing loss and vision impairment have been linked to poor cognitive and physical health but remain understudied in the context of social and mental health in large, population-based studies. Research gaps remain in measurement (findings typically based on subjective assessments) and generalizability. This session will investigate associations between objectively measured hearing, vision, and dual sensory loss on social isolation and mood disorders using a sample nationally representative of older adults in the US. This session will also describe potential mechanistic and environmental factors, such as fatigue and exclusion of hearing loss and vision impairment in health care settings that may explain observed associations. Whether treatment of hearing loss and vision impairment is an effective intervention for improving social and mental health is unknown. We will conclude by presenting findings from a randomized controlled trial designed to test whether a hearing intervention consisting of provision of hearing aids and related technologies, counseling, and education could reduce cognitive decline in older adults with untreated hearing loss. We focus on the effect of hearing intervention on social isolation and loneliness, both pre-specified outcomes of this trial.

This is a Loneliness and Social Isolation Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

This is a collaborative symposium between the Loneliness and Social Isolation and Sensory Health Interest Groups.

Learning Objectives:

  • Describe associations between hearing loss, vision impairment, and dual sensory impairment on social and mental health
  • Describe potential mechanisms that may explain associations between hearing loss and vision impairment on social and mental health
  • Describe hearing treatment as an intervention for potentially improving social isolation and loneliness in older adults

Presentations:

  • 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM ET
    Vision Loss and Psychosocial Functioning: What's the Connection?

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Louay Almidani, MD, MSc – Wilmer Eye Institute

  • 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM ET
    Concurrent Vision and Hearing Impairments, Social Isolation, Depression, and Anxiety: Findings From the NHATS

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Shu Xu, MS, MA (she/her/hers) – University of Massachusetts, Boston

  • 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM ET
    Hearing Loss and Fatigue in Middle-Aged and Older Adults

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Kening Jiang, MHS (she/her/hers) – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  • 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM ET
    Health Care Settings: A Missed Opportunity to Address Hearing Loss

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Margaret I. Wallhagen, PhD, GNP, FGSA, AGSF, FAAN (she/her/hers) – University of California, San Francisco

  • 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM ET
    Effect of Hearing Intervention on Loneliness and Social Isolation in the ACHIEVE Study