Subclinical Hearing Loss is Associated With Depressive Symptoms.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To assess whether the relationship between hearing and depressive symptoms is present among older adults classified as normal hearing (≤25 dB).

Design

Cross-sectional epidemiologic study (Hispanic Community Health Study).

Setting

US multicentered.

Participants

Adults ≥50 years old (n = 5,499) with normal hearing or hearing loss (HL).

Measurements

The primary exposure was hearing, defined continuously by the 4-frequency pure-tone average threshold (dB) on audiometry. Hearing was additionally categorized into normal hearing (≤25 dB) and HL (>25 dB). The main outcome was depressive symptoms, measured with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-10 (CESD-10). Depressive symptoms were defined both continuously and binarily (where CESD-

SUBMITTER: Golub JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7324246 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature