The Association of Vision and Hearing Impairment on Cognitive Function and Loneliness: Evidence From the Mexican Health and Aging Study.
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2025-06
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Objectives: We investigated whether self-reported vision and hearing were associated with cognitive function and loneliness among Mexican adults aged 50 and older. Methods: Mexican Health and Aging Study data. Vision/hearing status was self-reported (excellent-very good, good, fair-poor). Cognition was measured using nine tasks. Loneliness was measured using the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Analyses controlled for demographic and health characteristics. Results: Among 12,353 participants (mean age = 67, 58% female), poor vision, but not hearing, was associated with lower global cognition (β = -0.03, p < .05). Poor vision (OR = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.30-1.91) and hearing (OR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.14-1.61) were associated with higher odds of being lonely after adjusting for demographics and comorbidities, but not when adjusting for limitations in daily activities and depressive symptoms. Discussion: Poor vision is a potentially modifiable risk factor for lower cognition and loneliness among Mexican adults. These associations are partly due to functional characteristics of older adults with poor vision.
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Hreha, Kimberly, Rafael Samper-Ternent, Heather E Whitson, LP Downer, Jessica S West and Brian Downer (2025). The Association of Vision and Hearing Impairment on Cognitive Function and Loneliness: Evidence From the Mexican Health and Aging Study. Journal of aging and health, 37(5-6). pp. 337–346. 10.1177/08982643241247583 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/34277.
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Scholars@Duke
Kimberly Hreha
Heather Elizabeth Whitson
Dr. Whitson's research is focused on improving care options and resilience for people with multiple chronic conditions. In particular, she has interest and expertise related to the link between age-related changes in the eye and brain (e.g., How does late-life vision loss impact the aging brain or cognitive outcomes? Is Alzheimer's disease associated with distinctive changes in the retina, and could such changes help diagnose Alzheimer's disease early in its course?). Dr. Whitson leads a collaborative Alzheimer's Disease initiative that brings together investigators from Duke University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, with a bold vision to transform dementia research and care across Eastern North Carolina. Dr. Whitson is also interested in improving health services to better meet the needs of medically complex patients. Within the Duke Aging Center, she leads research efforts aimed at promoting resilience to late-life stressors (e.g., surgery, sensory loss, infection). She has developed a novel rehabilitation model for people with co-existing vision and cognitive deficits, and she is part of a inter-disciplinary team seeking to improve peri-operative outcomes for frail or at-risk seniors who must undergo surgery. As a co-leader of a national resilience collaborative, she seeks to better understand the biological and psychological factors that determine how well we "bounce back" after health stressors.
Jessica Sayles West
Jessica is a medical sociologist who specializes in research on hearing loss, aging, and health disparities over the life course. Jessica’s work has described the “spillover” effects of hearing loss on health outcomes for both individuals and those close to them, as well as sociodemographic disparities in the onset of and life expectancy with hearing loss. Her research, which leverages both population-level data and electronic health record data, has appeared in the Journals of Gerontology, Social Science & Medicine, Ear and Hearing, and other leading journals in medical sociology, hearing, and aging research.
Jessica received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in Social Anthropology (dual Sociology/Anthropology concentration) followed by an M.P.H. in Sociomedical Sciences with a certificate in Public Health Research Methods from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She subsequently received an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology with a focus in Medical Sociology and Demography at Duke University. She then completed an NIA T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Duke University Aging Center under the mentorship of Matthew E. Dupre, Ph.D. (Population Health Sciences) and Sherri L. Smith, Au.D., Ph.D. (Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences).
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