Sensory Impairment and Perceived Discrimination Among Older Adults: What Is the Role of Psychological Resilience?

Abstract
Background:
Sensory impairments, including vision and hearing loss, are prevalent among older adults and have been linked to increased experiences of perceived everyday discrimination. Psychological resilience may serve as a protective factor, potentially buffering the relationship between sensory impairment and perceived everyday discrimination. This study examines the effect of psychological resilience on the association between vision impairment, hearing impairment, and dual sensory impairment, and perceived everyday discrimination in a nationally representative sample of adults aged 65 and older.

Methods:
Data were drawn from Wave 2016 of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative panel survey for older adults over the age of 50. Perceived everyday discrimination was measured by 5 items which assess how frequently respondents experience discrimination on a scale ranging from 1 (never) to 6 (almost every day). Sensory impairment variables included vision impairment, hearing impairment, and dual sensory impairment (difficulty with both vision and hearing). Psychological resilience was measured using the Simplified Resilience Scale which uses standardized scores from 12 items taken from the HRS Leave Behind Questionnaire (LBQ). Three separate multiple linear regression models were estimated, each including the main effects of psychological resilience and each type of sensory impairment, as well as their interaction term.

Results:
For vision impairment (N = 2,938), vision impairment was associated with higher perceived everyday discrimination (β = 0.21, p = .018) and psychological resilience was associated with lower perceived everyday discrimination (β = -0.25, p < .001). The interaction between psychological resilience and vision impairment was significant and negative (β = -0.18, p = .037), suggesting a moderating effect of psychological resilience. However, hearing impairment (N = 2,946) was not significantly associated with perceived everyday discrimination (β = 0.11, p = .218), and the interaction between psychological resilience and hearing impairment was not significant (β = -0.10, p = .256). Nonetheless, psychological resilience was associated with lower perceived everyday discrimination (β = -0.27, p < .001) for hearing impairment. For dual sensory impairment (N = 2,935), higher psychological resilience was associated with lower perceived everyday discrimination (β = -0.26, p < .001). Dual sensory impairment was also associated with higher perceived everyday discrimination (β = 0.27, p = .003). The interaction between psychological resilience and dual sensory impairment was significant and negative (β = -0.24, p = .007), indicating that psychological resilience buffers the association between dual sensory impairment and perceived everyday discrimination.

Conclusions:
Across all models, higher psychological resilience was consistently associated with lower perceived everyday discrimination among older adults. Vision impairment and dual sensory impairment were both associated with higher perceived everyday discrimination, and these associations were significantly weakened by psychological resilience. These findings suggest that psychological resilience may buffer the negative social consequences of sensory impairment in later life.