Kim Kiely

Sensory loss and dementia are often reported to co-occur and are the two leading contributors to non-fatal disease burden for older Australians. Communication difficulties arising from sensory declines can exacerbate the impacts of cognitive impairment, lead to excess disability, and compromise effective dementia diagnosis, management, and treatment. Importantly, as both hearing and vision loss predict cognitive impairment and dementia incidence, their comorbidity may not simply be a coincidental result of general ageing processes but could reflect a causal connection. A range of mechanisms have been proposed to account for this relationship, but little research has explicitly tested these explanations. 

This project collates existing international clinical and longitudinal data to advance our understanding of the association between sensory disability and cognitive impairment. The aims of the project are to: i) highlight the combined effects of sensory and cognitive impairment on wellbeing, quality of life, daily functioning and independence, ii) use novel analytic approaches to examine the long-term coupling of sensory and cognitive ageing, iii) identify social, cognitive and biological mechanisms that explain the relationship, iv) ascertain whether hearing rehabilitation can reduce the impacts of hearing loss on impaired cognitive function, v) inform health policy relating to comorbid sensory and cognitive impairment.

Dr Kiely is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, Australian National University. Dr Kiely has also been awarded a prestigous NHMRC early career fellowship in 2014 which he will begin after his AADRF fellowship.