Perda auditiva e progressão da fragilidade em idosos em contexto de vulnerabilidade social
Abstract
Introduction: Hearing loss is considered the most common sensory deficit in the elderly, affecting communication and leading to social isolation and has recently been associated with frailty in the elderly. We verified whether hearing loss is related to the progression of frailty in the elderly. Method: Longitudinal research with 345 elderly evaluated in 2015 and 223 re-evaluated in 2017, composing two cohorts: cohort 1, of non-frail individuals and cohort 2, of pre-frail individuals at baseline. Frailty scores were compared between 2015 and 2017 to verify the progression of frailty. 68 elderly were excluded for being frail in 2015. Logistic regression was used to check association between hearing and progression of frailty. Results: 17% worsened Frailty within two years. The cohorts differed in gender, age and frailty progression, with cohort 1 having slightly younger elderly (p<0.001), women (p<0.008) and more cases of frailty progression (p<0.000). Other health characteristics did not differ in the composition of the cohorts. Sociodemographic, health, cognition, depression and hearing variables were studied in each cohort according to frailty progression. There was no factor related to frailty progression in cohort 1; however, among individuals in cohort 2, age, presence of comorbidity, and restricted hearing participation were related to frailty progression. Restricted hearing participation had a 2.7 times greater chance of frailty progression compared to those without restricted hearing participation (p<0.043). However, after controlling the model for age and comorbidity the association between restricted hearing participation and frailty progression did not hold. Conclusion: Although restricted hearing participation has been shown to be related to frailty progression, age and the presence of comorbidity were the determining factors for the worsening of pre-frail individuals.
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