Association of multisensory dysfunctions-smell, taste, hearing and vision with depression in the U.S. adults

Sensory dysfunction is a disorder in which the brain has problems processing information from the senses. Sensory dysfunctions not only affect physical health and quality of life, but also have a negative impact on mental health. This study aimed to investigate the association between multisensory dysfunctions (smell, taste, hearing and vision) and depression.

The cross-sectional analysis included 3328 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2013-2014. The 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) was used to evaluate depression status. Sensory impairments were assessed using self-reported questionnaires. Logistic regression adjusted for related demographics and socioeconomic data was used to assess the relationship between concurrent sensory dysfunctions and depression.

Participants with self-reported smell, taste, vision, or hearing dysfunction were more likely to experience depression, with vision dysfunction having the greatest risk of depression both in the separate model (AOR = 3.245, 95 % CI: 2.282-4.614, P < 0.001) and mutually adjusted model (AOR = 2.613, 95 % CI: 1.818-3.758, P < 0.001). Moreover, concurrent multisensory dysfunctions increase the risk of depressive symptoms compared to a single sensory disorder. Participants with three to four sensory dysfunctions had more than a 7-fold risk of depression (AOR = 7.721, 95 % CI: 4.693-12.692, P < 0.001) after adjusting for age, gender, race, chronic diseases, and health-related behaviors.

The findings suggest that smell, taste, vision, or hearing dysfunction is associated with the increased prevalence of depression, and concurrent multisensory dysfunctions bring a higher risk to depression than a single sensory impairment.