1 Department of Kinesiology & Physical Education, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario.
2 Department of Health Sciences, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario.
3 Toronto Rehabilitation Institute - University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario.
4 Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario.
5 Department of Surgery, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
6 School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western University, London, Ontario.
7 Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario.
8 School of Health Studies, Western University, London, Ontario.
9 School of Optometry, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec.
10 Lethbridge-Layton-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre of West-Central Montreal, Montreal, Quebec.
11 Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille du Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de la Montérégie-Centre, Longueuil, Québec.
12 Department of Psychology/Centre for Research in Human Development, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.

Vision and hearing impairments are highly prevalent in adults 65 years of age and older. There is a need to understand their association with multiple health-related outcomes. We analyzed data from the Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (RAI-HC). Home care clients were followed for up to 5 years and categorized into seven unique cohorts based on whether or not they developed new vision and/or hearing impairments. An absolute standardized difference (stdiff) of at least 0.2 was considered statistically meaningful. Most clients (at least 60%) were female and 34.9 per cent developed a new sensory impairment. Those with a new concurrent vison and hearing impairment were more likely than those with no sensory impairments to experience a deterioration in receptive communication (stdiff = 0.68) and in cognitive performance (stdiff = 0.49). After multivariate adjustment, they had a twofold increased odds (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI]:1,87, 2.35) of deterioration in cognitive performance. Changes in sensory functioning are common and have important effects on multiple health-related outcomes.