Individual Life-Course Socioeconomic Position and Hearing Aid Use in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

Julie S Yi; Emmanuel E Garcia Morales; Joshua F Betz; Jennifer A Deal; Lorraine T Dean; Simo Du; Adele M Goman; Michael E Griswold; Priya Palta; George W Rebok; Nicholas S Reed; Roland J Thorpe; Frank R Lin; Carrie L Nieman

doi:10.1093/gerona/glab273

Individual Life-Course Socioeconomic Position and Hearing Aid Use in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2022 Mar 3;77(3):645-653. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glab273.

Authors

Julie S Yi^{1

2}, Emmanuel E Garcia Morales², Joshua F Betz^{2

3}, Jennifer A Deal^{2

4

5}, Lorraine T Dean^{1

5}, Simo Du⁵, Adele M Goman^{2

5}, Michael E Griswold³, Priya Palta^{6

7}, George W Rebok⁸, Nicholas S Reed^{2

4

5}, Roland J Thorpe⁹, Frank R Lin^{1

2

5}, Carrie L Nieman^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
² Cochlear Center for Hearing & Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
³ Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁴ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁶ Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York, USA.
⁷ Department of Epidemiology, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA.
⁸ Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁹ Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Abstract

Background: To measure the association between individual life-course socioeconomic position (SEP) and hearing aid use, we examined childhood and adulthood socioeconomic variables collected at the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study baseline visit (1987-1989)/Life Course Socioeconomic Status study (2001-2002) and hearing aid use data collected at visit 6 (2016-2017).

Methods: ARIC is a prospective cohort study of older adults (45-64 years) recruited from 4 U.S. communities. This analysis included a subset of 2 470 participants with hearing loss at visit 6 (≥25 decibels hearing level [dB HL] better-ear) with complete hearing aid use data. Childhood SEP variables included parental education, parental occupation, and parental home ownership. Young and older adulthood SEP variables included income, education, occupation, and home ownership. Each life epoch was assigned a score ranging from 0 to 5 and then summed to calculate the individual cumulative SEP score. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was used to estimate the association between individual cumulative SEP and hearing aid use. Missing SEP scores were imputed for participants with incomplete socioeconomic data.

Results: Of the 2 470 participants in the analytic cohort (median [interquartile interval] age 79.9 [76.7-84.0], 1 330 [53.8%] women, 450 [18.2%] Black), 685 (27.7%) participants reported hearing aid use. Higher cumulative SEP was positively associated with hearing aid use (odds ratio [OR] = 1.09, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04-1.14), and slightly stronger for childhood (OR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.00-1.20) than older adulthood SEP score (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.95-1.18).

Conclusions: In this community-based cohort of older adults with hearing loss, higher individual life-course SEP was positively associated with hearing aid use.

Keywords: Age-related hearing loss; Cumulative disadvantage; Health disparities; Hearing health care disparities; Socioeconomic position.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Atherosclerosis* / epidemiology
Child
Female
Hearing Aids*
Hearing Loss* / epidemiology
Humans
Life Change Events
Male
Prospective Studies
Risk Factors
Social Class
Socioeconomic Factors

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding