Sensory Loss Affects 94 Percent Of Older Adults

A first-time study, conducted by the University of Chicago Medical Center, revealed that more than 90 percent of older adults in the U.S. are living with at least one sensory deficit, while 38 percent live with two and 28 percent are affected by three or more.

Sensory loss is defined as a pattern of neurological damage that results in the loss of touch, sight, smell, hearing, taste or spatial awareness. For a person to have a sensory loss or deficit, the function of at least one sense is either partially or totally damaged.

Led by Dr. Jayant Pinto, an associate professor of surgery and study author, the research team examined 3,005 people between ages 57 and 85 from a nationally representative sample. Almost two-thirds of the participants - 64 percent - suffered from at least one form of sensory loss, while 22 percent reported suffering from at least two major deficits.

"We know that sensory impairment is common and is often a harbinger of serious health problems, such as cognitive decline or falls, as well as more subtle ones like burns, caused by loss of touch sensitivity, food poisoning that goes undetected because of loss of smell and taste, and smoke inhalation, from loss of smell," Pinto said. "Our findings here give us a better appreciation of the prevalence of multi-sensory loss, a first step toward learning more about what causes the senses to decline."

The results had a profound association with age, gender and race, according to a news release. Some of the sensory loss was considered mild, but a large amount were serious. Predictably, the older participants had more deficits, particularly with hearing, vision and smell. Men had higher levels of loss with hearing, smell and taste, but women had higher levels of loss in vision.

African-Americans scored lower than average on all senses except for hearing, while Hispanics score highly with taste, but poorly in vision, touch and smell.

Overall, a decrease in the sense of taste was the most prevalent, affecting 74 percent of the participants. Touch was also a low-scoring sense, with only 30 percent of the participants being rated as having a normal sense of touch.

These findings point to a serious problem and health risk for older adults. Sensory loss and its relation to age is understudied, and it can have significant impacts. According to Pinto, sensory loss "constrains how the elderly cope with social, physical and cognitive stresses. It is a major part of why older people report decreased quality of life."

In October 2014, Pinto's team conducted another study on sensory impairment, published in PLOS ONE, that came to the realization that olfactory dysfunction - the loss of smell - could predict mortality better than a cancer or heart failure diagnosis. Additionally, a September 2015 study from JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery focused on hearing loss showed an association between that impairment and an increased risk of death.

"We need to understand the biology behind the links between age and sensory loss and design better ways to prevent its decline," Pinto said. "People caring for older adults, including family members, caregivers and physicians, should pay close attention to impairments in vision, hearing, and smell."

The findings were published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

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