Association of self-reported hearing difficulty to objective and perceived participation outside the home in older community-dwelling adults.

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether hearing difficulty is associated with objective and perceived participation in social and leisure activities outside the home in older adults. METHOD Self-reported hearing difficulty, frequency of participation, perceived participation and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were obtained from 848 community-dwelling men and women aged 75 to 90. RESULTS Among persons with MMSE ≤ 24, hearing was not associated with participation. In persons with MMSE > 24, relative to persons who reported no difficulty hearing, participants with major hearing difficulty had a higher odds ratio [OR] for infrequent participation in group activities (OR 2.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.2, 3.6]) and more restricted perceived participation (OR 2.1, 95% CI [1.2, 3.7]). Participants with and without hearing difficulty did not differ in their frequency of attending non-group activities or meeting (grand)children or acquaintances. DISCUSSION Hearing difficulty may restrict older adults with normal cognition from participating in social and leisure activities and living their life as they would like to outside the home.