Prevalence, diagnoses and rehabilitation services related to severe dual sensory loss (DSL) in older persons: a cross-sectional study based on medical records

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic information for the Swedish population and study population stratified by age and gender.

Age	Gender	Sweden (all ages), N = 9,995,153	County 1 (all ages), n = 279,334	County 2 (all ages), n = 294,941
		n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
65+		1,976,797 (19.8)	65,305 (23.4)	62,333 (21.1)
	Women	1,064,412 (10.6)	35,142 (12.6)	33,478 (11.4)
	Men	912,445 (9.1)	30,163 (10.8)	28,855 (9.8)
65–74		1,113,177 (11.1)	35,731 (12.8)	35,404 (12.0)
	Women	565,830 (5.7)	17,975 (6.4)	17,938 (6.1)
	Men	547,347 (5.5)	17,756 (6.4)	17,466 (5.9)
75–84		603,816 (6.0)	20,537 (7.4)	18,813 (6.4)
	Women	329,131 (3.3)	11,317 (4.1)	10,161 (3.4)
	Men	274,685 (2.7)	9220 (3.3)	8652 (2.9)
85+		259,864 (2.6)	9037 (3.2)	8116 (2.8)
	Women	169,451 (1.7)	5850 (2.1)	5379 (1.8)
	Men	90,413 (0.9)	3187 (1.1)	2737 (0.9)

Figure 1. Flowchart of the recruitment process.

Table 2. Prevalence of DSL in persons aged 65 or older in counties 1 and 2.

Age	County 1	With DSL	Prevalence county 1 (%)	County 2	With DSL	Prevalence county 2 (%)
	n	n (%)		n	n (%)
Total	65,305	55 (100)	0.08	62,333	46 (100)	0.07
65–74	35,731	4 (7.3)	0.01	35,404	3 (6.5)	0.01
75–84	20,537	15 (27.3)	0.07	18,813	8 (17.4)	0.04
85+	9037	36 (65.4)	0.4	8116	35 (76.1)	0.4

Table 3. Diagnoses of vision and hearing loss in 21 individuals residing in both counties.

	75–84 years (n = 10)	≥85 years (n = 11)
	n (%)	n (%)
Type of hearing loss
Sensorineural HL	7 (70)	11 (100)
Combined HL	3 (30)
Degree of HL (better ear)
70–95 dB	7 (70)	11 (100)
≥95 dB	3 (30)
Vision diagnoses
Age-related macular degeneration	8 (80)	11 (100)
Cataract	8 (80)	11 (100)
Glaucoma	1 (10)	4 (36)
Diabetic retinopathy	1 (10)
Retinitis pigmentosa	1 (10)
Numbers of vision diagnoses
1	3 (30)
2	2 (20)	3 (27)
3	2 (20)	6 (55)
≥4	3 (30)	2 (18)
Degree of VL (better eye)
>0.50	1 (10)^a
˂0.50	1 (10)^a	1 (9)^a
˂0.34	3 (30)	6 (66)
˂0.10	2 (20)	2 (18)
˂0.05	3 (30)	2 (18)

^aBetween step one and two in the data collection procedure, three persons improved their visual acuity to greater than 0.3. One person had received treatment (eye injection for wet AMD), and the other two had undergone lens replacement surgery for cataracts. Their visual acuity at distance after treatment and surgery ranged from 0.4 to 0.6 in the better eye.

Table 4. Description of the health care professionals involved and rehabilitation services offered to each age group of persons with DSL.

	75–84 years (n = 10)	≥85 years (n = 11)
	n (%)	n (%)
Contact with
Audiological clinic	10 (100)	11 (100)
Audiological physician	7 (70)	3 (27)
Audiologist	10 (100)	11 (100)
Engineer	1 (10)	1 (9)
Social worker	3 (30)	1 (9)
Teacher for the deaf	3 (30)	0
Technician	2 (20)	5 (45)
Low Vision clinic	8 (80)	10 (91)
Occupational therapist or low vision therapist	8 (80)	10 (91)
Optician	7 (70)	9 (82)
Social worker	3 (30)
Technician	1 (10)	1 (9)
Vision clinic	10 (100)	11 (100)
Nurse	9 (90)	11 (100)
Ophthalmologist	9 (90)	11 (100)
Rehabilitation service
Audiological clinic
Alert system, door bell	7 (70)	6 (55)
Alert system, smoke alarm	2 (20)	1 (9)
Alert system, telephone	7 (70)	6 (55)
Hearing aid, bilateral	2 (20)	8 (73)
Hearing aid, unilateral	6 (60)	3 (27)
Hearing aid, unilateral + Cochlear implant (CI), unilateral	2 (20)
Loop system, TV	8 (80)	6 (55)
Low Vision clinic
ADL^a	6 (60)	11 (100)
Environmental modifications	6 (60)	5 (45)
Filter glasses	4 (40)	3 (27)
Hand-held magnifiers	5 (50)	9 (82)
Magnifier TV glasses	3 (30)	3 (27)
Magnifying glasses	3 (30)	2 (18)
Orientation & mobility	1 (10)	2 (18)
Refracted glasses	1 (10)	5 (45)
Video magnifiers	1 (10)	4 (36)

^aAn intervention to train the participant’s abilities to maintain different activities in daily life (ADL), mainly in reading and writing skills.