Research Article Dual Sensory Impairment among Community Dwelling Rural Elderly: Concern for Rehabilitation Deepthi Ramamurthy, 1 Arvind Kasthuri, 2 and Rekha Sonavane 3 1 Department of Community Medicine, ESIC-MC & PGIMSR, Rajajinagar, Bangalore 560010, India 2 Department of Community Health, St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore 560034, India 3 Department of Community Medicine, Al-Ameen Medical College, Bijapur 586108, India Correspondence should be addressed to Deepthi Ramamurthy; drdeepthikiran@gmail.com Received 30 September 2013; Revised 4 December 2013; Accepted 8 December 2013; Published 29 January 2014 Academic Editor: Shunichiro Shinagawa Copyright © 2014 Deepthi Ramamurthy et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Tere is an increase in dual sensory impairment (DSI) (hearing and visual) with increase in elderly population. Most causes of DSI among elderly are treatable. Tis study determines the prevalence and characteristics of dual sensory impairment among elderly of a rural community. Material and Methods. A cross-sectional study conducted among 175 rural elderly. Visual acuity for distant vision was measured using Snellen E chart. Hearing ability was measured using pure tone audiometry. Results. Te prevalence of hearing impairment was 72% and that of visual impairment was 48%. Te overall prevalence of DSI among the study subjects was 17.7% and 32.6% depending on whether traditional pure tone average or high-frequency pure tone average was used to defne moderate or worse degree of hearing impairment. DSI prevalence increased signifcantly with increase in age. DSI was higher among widow/ers and illiterates, who did not have any source of income and those who were fnancially dependent on others compared to their counter groups. Conclusion. Prevalence of DSI is high among community dwelling rural Indian elderly. Individuals with DSI produce unique challenges in rehabilitation. A team approach at primary health care level is necessary to diagnose and rehabilitate elderly thereby enabling them to easily lead an independent life. 1. Introduction Hearing and visual ability are key aspects of functioning among the elderly. Hearing and visual impairments among elderly have been studied extensively as single sensory impairments, but dual sensory impairment (DSI) among them is less well understood. Studies have proven that indi- viduals with DSI have more difculty in performing activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living [1– 3] compared to individuals with single sensory impairment. In comparison with a single sensory impairment, DSI is associated with more depressive symptoms [4], lower health related quality of life [5], and also increased risk of mortality [6]. Older age is a well known risk factor for sensory impair- ments. Elderly proportion in India according to 2011 census is 8.1% and is expected to rise to 17% by the year 2025 [7, 8]. Te special features of Indian elderly population which is a challenge are a majority (80%) of them being in the rural areas, large percentage (30%) being in below poverty line, feminization of the elderly population, and increase in the number of the oldest age group (≥ 80 years) [8, 9]. Geriatric medical care difers from usual medical care in shifing the focus to preservation of function and improving the quality of life rather than treating and curing specifc diseases. Increasing elderly population will eventually lead to increase in the prevalence of DSI in India. Various studies demonstrate that the prevalence rate of DSI among elderly ranges from 6.5 to 35.0 percent [1, 4– 6, 10–14]. Tere is complexity associated with defning and understanding DSI as it is determined by the defnitions for the respective single sensory impairments. Most stud- ies are from developed countries, are hospital based, and use traditional pure tone average (PTA) to classify hearing Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Geriatrics Volume 2014, Article ID 254518, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/254518