18 May 2021

Both hearing loss and vision loss are common among adult Canadians

2.7 million Canadians between the ages of 45 and 85 have a hearing loss. Nearly 1 million have both a hearing loss and a vision loss.
Both hearing loss and vision loss are common among adult Canadians

A study has found that both hearing loss and vision loss are quite common among adult Canadians.

The study found that 1.5 million Canadian males aged 45–85 had at least mild hearing loss, 1.8 million had at least mild vision loss and 570,000 had both a hearing loss and a vision loss.

Among Canadian females aged 45–85, 1.2 million had at least mild hearing loss, 2.2 million had at least mild vision loss and 450,000 had had both a hearing loss and a vision loss.

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Prevalence of hearing loss

Among Canadians aged 45–85, mild, moderate and severe hearing loss was prevalent among 13.4%, 3.7%, and 0.4% of males and among 11.3%, 2.3%, and 0.2% of females respectively.

At least a mild dual sensory loss (both hearing and vision) was prevalent among 6.4% of males and 6.1% of females.

About the study

The purpose of the study was to describe the prevalence of hearing loss, vision loss and dual sensory loss in Canadians aged 45–85.

The study used data from the CLSA Baseline Comprehensive Dataset in the analysis. The CLSA is a 20-year longitudinal closed cohort study consisting of approximately 50,000 Canadians who were 45–85 years of age at the time of baseline analysis.

The study, "The Prevalence of Hearing, Vision, and Dual Sensory Loss in Older Canadians: An Analysis of Data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging", was published in the Canadian Journal on Aging.

Sources: pmlegacy.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov and the Canadian Journal on Aging

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