Familial and Birth Cohort Effects on the Aging Senses

描述（由申请人提供）：这项拟议的流行病学研究的目的是测量年龄相关感觉障碍的患病率（听觉、视觉、嗅觉）和亚临床疾病听力损失流行病学研究参与者后代的白内障（白内障和年龄相关性黄斑病变）（EHLS; AG 11099），以确定亚临床血管疾病与感觉障碍的相关性，并评估出生队列和家族对感觉障碍的影响。本研究将建立在EHLS和比弗坝眼科研究（EY 06594）的基础上。出生于1935年至1975年之间的EHLS参与者的后代将有资格参加本研究。将使用母研究中使用的相同标准化方案对他们（n=5745）进行检查。考试将包括听力评估（耳镜检查、筛查性鼓室压测试、听力测试、文字识别测试、畸变产物耳声发射）、眼科检查（屈光、视敏度测量、对比敏感度、调节幅度以及透镜和视网膜的数字图像）、嗅觉测试（圣地亚哥气味识别测试）和血管测量（B型颈动脉超声以确定内膜-中层厚度）、踝臂指数、血压、视网膜小动脉-小静脉比率和脉搏波速度）。这项流行病学队列研究将为战后“婴儿潮”一代的感觉障碍、感觉障碍和亚临床动脉粥样硬化的患病率提供新的流行病学数据。与前几代人相比，第二次世界大战后队列经历了生活方式和暴露的巨大变化，重要的是要确定第二次世界大战后一代的感觉障碍风险是否存在出生队列差异，并确定导致风险差异的因素。需要这些数据来帮助做好充分准备，以满足下一代老年人的医疗保健需求。此外，来自父母群体的现有数据将与新队列的数据一起用于评估感觉障碍和感觉共病的家族聚集性，以确定遗传和环境因素的相对贡献。预计将有2066个核心家庭，代表5946个兄弟姐妹和350个大家庭（包括阿姨，叔叔，祖父母和堂兄弟姐妹）可用于这些分析。这些数据将提供有关年龄相关感觉障碍风险的重要新信息，对于规划预防计划以改善1946-1964年间出生的8000万老年儿童的生活质量至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this proposed epidemiologic study is to measure the prevalence of age-related sensory impairments (hearing, vision, olfaction) and subclinical disorders (cataract and age-related maculopathy) in the offspring of participants in the Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study (EHLS; AG11099), to determine the association of subclinical vascular disease with sensory disorders and to evaluate birth cohort and familial effects on sensory impairments. This study will build on the contributions of the EHLS and the Beaver Dam Eye Study (EY06594). Offspring of EHLS participants, born between 1935 and 1975, will be eligible for this study. They (n=5745) will be examined using the same standardized protocols used in the parent studies. The examination will include a hearing evaluation (otoscopy, screening tympanometry, audiometry, word recognition tests, distortion product otoacoustic emissions), eye examination (refraction, visual acuity measures, contrast sensitivity, amplitude of accommodation, and digital images of the lens and retina), olfaction testing (San Diego Odor Identification Test), and vascular measures (B-mode carotid ultrasound to determine intima-medial thickness), ankle-brachial index, blood pressure, retinal arteriolar-venular ratio, and pulse wave velocity). This epidemiologic cohort study will provide new epidemiologic data on the prevalence of sensory impairments, sensory disorders, and subclinical atherosclerosis in the post-war "baby-boomer" generation. With the vast changes in lifestyles and exposures experienced by the post-WWll cohort compared to earlier generations, it is important to ascertain whether there are birth cohort differences in risk of sensory disorders for the post-WWll generation and to identify factors contributing to the risk differentials. These data are needed to help adequately prepare to meet the health care needs of the future generation of the elderly. In addition, the existing data from the parent population will be used with the new cohort's data to evaluate the familial aggregation of sensory disorders and sensory co-morbidity to determine the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors. There will be an expected 2066 nuclear families representing 5946 sibpairs and 350 extended families (including aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins) available for these analyses. These data will provide important new information on the risks of age-related sensory disorders and are essential for planning prevention programs to improve quality of life for the 80 million aging children born between 1946-1964.