Hearing loss and depressive symptoms in older Chinese: whether social isolation plays a role

Abstract

Background Existing evidence links hearing loss to depressive symptoms, with the extent of association and underlying mechanisms remaining inconclusive. We conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the association of hearing loss with depressive symptoms and explored whether social isolation mediated the association. Methods Eight thousand nine hundred sixty-two participants from Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study were included. Data on self-reported hearing status, the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), social isolation and potential confounders were collected by face-to-face interview. Results The mean (standard deviation) age of participants was 60.2 (7.8) years. The prevalence of poor and fair hearing was 6.8% and 60.8%, respectively. After adjusting for age, sex, household income, education, occupation, smoking, alcohol use, self-rated health, comorbidities, compared with participants who had normal hearing, those with poor hearing (β = 0.74, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.54, 0.94) and fair hearing (β = 0.59, 95% CI 0.48, 0.69) had higher scores of GDS-15. After similar adjustment, those with poor hearing (odds ratio (OR) = 2.13, 95% CI 1.65, 2.74) or fair hearing (OR = 1.68, 95% CI 1.43, 1.99) also showed higher odds of depressive symptoms. The association of poor and fair hearing with depressive symptoms attenuated slightly but not substantially after additionally adjusting for social isolation. In the mediation analysis, the adjusted proportion of the association mediated through social isolation was 9% (95% CI: 6%, 22%). Conclusion Poor hearing was associated with a higher risk of depressive symptoms, which was only partly mediated by social isolation. Further investigation of the underlying mechanisms is warranted.

Physical activity and functional social support in community-dwelling older adults: a scoping review

“…Chia et al found a significant positive association between companionship SOSU and objective PA in Taiwanese men and women, but the association was stronger in women [ 113 ]. Huang et al found that walking together in a group significantly increased objective PA in older Taiwanese men [ 114 ].…”

Sensorineural hearing loss and cognitive impairment: three hypotheses

“…In another study, middle-aged and elderly patients with HL were more likely to have diminished health status, depression, and suicidal ideation compared with participants without HL ( Park et al, 2022 ). Additional studies ( Chern et al, 2022 ; Huang et al, 2022 ) have suggested that HL can contribute to psychosocial disorders in patients. An MRI study revealed that gray matter volume in the middle cingulate cortex is positively correlated with high-frequency hearing impairment in patients with ARHL ( Ma et al, 2022 ).…”

Associations of daytime napping and nighttime sleep quality with depressive symptoms in older Chinese: the Guangzhou biobank cohort study

“…The contact with relatives and friends was part of "nonface-to-face contacts (by telephone/mail)" from the Berkman-Syme Social Network Index (SNI), which has been validated in Chinese population [49]. We additionally included mail as another way of non-face-to-face contact besides telephone, since both telephone and mail were common non-face-to-face contact ways in 2003, before smartphone, Internet, and social media had become popular [50,51]. According to the previous GBCS papers, the contact with relatives and friends were categorized into not at all, <once/month, ≥once/month, ≥once/week, or almost daily [50][51][52].…”

“…We additionally included mail as another way of non-face-to-face contact besides telephone, since both telephone and mail were common non-face-to-face contact ways in 2003, before smartphone, Internet, and social media had become popular [50,51]. According to the previous GBCS papers, the contact with relatives and friends were categorized into not at all, <once/month, ≥once/month, ≥once/week, or almost daily [50][51][52]. Other data included subjective health status as good or poor, and history of chronic diseases (including hypertension, diabetes, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and coronary heart disease) based on physical examination and self-reported previous physician diagnoses or medication history, which was categorized into none and yes (one or more).…”