Familial and Birth Cohort Effects on the Aging Senses

描述(由研究人员提供)：这项拟议的流行病学研究的目的是测量与年龄相关的感觉障碍(听力、视力、嗅觉)和亚临床疾病(白内障和年龄相关黄斑病变)在听力损失流行病学研究(EHLS；AG11099)参与者后代中的患病率，以确定亚临床血管疾病与感觉障碍的联系，并评估出生队列和家庭对感觉障碍的影响。这项研究将基于EHLS和海狸大坝眼科研究(EY06594)的贡献。EHLS参与者的后代将有资格参加这项研究。他们(n=5977)将使用父母研究中使用的相同标准化方案进行检查。检查将包括听力评估(耳镜、筛查鼓室导纳、测听、单词识别和分听测试、失真产品耳声发射)、眼睛检查(屈光、视力测量、对比敏感度、调节幅度以及晶状体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，以确定内中膜厚度)、踝臂指数、血压、视网膜动静脉比和脉搏波速度。 这项流行病学队列研究将提供有关战后“婴儿潮一代”中感觉障碍、感觉障碍和亚临床动脉粥样硬化患病率的新流行病学数据。由于与前几代人相比，二战后一代人的生活方式和暴露经历了巨大的变化，因此，重要的是确定二战后一代人患感觉障碍的风险是否存在出生年龄组的差异，并确定导致风险差异的因素。需要这些数据来帮助为满足下一代老年人的保健需求做好充分准备。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同发病的家族聚集，以确定遗传和环境因素的相对贡献。预计将有2066个核心家庭可用于这些分析，这些家庭代表5946对兄弟姐妹和350个大家庭(包括阿姨、叔叔、祖父母和堂兄弟姐妹)。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 investigator): 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 will be eligible for this study. They (n=5977) 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 and dichotic listening 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-WWII 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.