Impact of Hearing Aid Use on Falls and Falls-Related Injury: Results From the Health and Retirement Study.
Kristal M Riska, Sarah B Peskoe, Maragatha Kuchibhatla and 5 others
PMID 34334680WHAT IT FOUND
In older adults, hearing aid use did not appear to change the link between self-reported hearing difficulty and falls or falls-related injury.
Hearing difficulty itself was linked to more reported falls.
Key findings
01In the fully adjusted model, people reporting poor hearing had 20% increased odds of reporting a fall compared with people reporting excellent hearing.
02Hearing aid use did not significantly change the association between self-reported hearing status and falls.
03Hearing aid use did not significantly change the association between self-reported hearing status and falls-related injury, and hearing status was not significantly associated with falls-related injury in the fully adjusted model.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
This was an observational survey analysis, not a randomised trial, so it cannot show that hearing aids caused more or fewer falls. Hearing aid use was based on whether participants ever wore a hearing aid, not on how much they wore it or how much benefit they received. The hearing aid group was small at study entry, with 549 users, so the analysis may have been underpowered to detect a true effect. Falls, hearing status, and many health variables were self-reported, which can introduce recall bias. The study could not control for medication use, dizziness or vestibular disease, fear of falling, or orthopedic changes. The association between hearing status and falls-related injury disappeared after adjustment for additional health and function variables.
Declared interests
The Health and Retirement Study is funded by the National Institute on Aging, and the paper is listed as supported by NIH extramural research. No author conflict-of-interest statement is included in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that hearing aids prevent falls. This was an observational survey, not a trial, and the analysis did not show hearing aid use changed the association between hearing difficulty and falls or injury. The hearing aid group was small and based on ever-use, so benefit and wear time were not measured.