Adverse health consequences of undiagnosed hearing loss at middle age: A prospective cohort study with the UK Biobank

• Published in: Maturitas 2023-08, Vol.174, p.30-38
• Main Authors: Xu, Shishi, Hou, Can, Han, Xin, Hu, Yao, Yang, Huazhen, Shang, Yanan, Chen, Wenwen, Zeng, Yu, Ying, Zhiye, Sun, Yajing, Qu, Yuanyuan, Lu, Yu, Fang, Fang, Valdimarsdóttir, Unnur A., Song, Huan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Comorbidity network; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Neurodegenerative disease; Self-reported hearing problem; Speech-in-noise test; Undiagnosed hearing loss
• ISSN: 0378-5122; 1873-4111; 1873-4111
• DOI: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2023.05.002

•This matched cohort study included 14,620 individuals with audiometry-determined objective hearing loss and 38,479 with subjective hearing loss, together with 29,240 and 38,479 matched unexposed individuals, respectively.•We found both undiagnosed objective and subjective hearing loss were associated with multiple subsequent adverse health consequences, but with discrepancies in comorbidity patterns.•Objective hearing loss had pronounced associations with neurodegenerative disease.•These findings highlight the importance of screening for speech-in-noise hearing impairment in the middle-aged population, for potential early diagnosis and intervention. Hearing impairment is common in the middle-aged population but remains largely undiagnosed and untreated. The knowledge about to what extent and how hearing impairment matters for health is currently lacking. Thus, we aimed to comprehensively examine the adverse health consequences as well as the comorbidity patterns of undiagnosed hearing loss. Based on the prospective cohort of the UK Biobank, we included 14,620 individuals (median age 61 years) with audiometry-determined (i.e., speech-in-noise test) objective hearing loss and 38,479 individuals with subjective hearing loss (i.e., tested negative but with self-reported hearing problems; median age 58 years) at recruitment (2006–2010), together with 29,240 and 38,479 matched unexposed individuals respectively. Cox regression was used to determine the associations of both hearing-loss exposures with the risk of 499 medical conditions and 14 cause-specific deaths, adjusting for ethnicity, annual household income, smoking and alcohol intake, exposure to working noise, and BMI. Comorbidity patterns following both exposures were visualized by comorbidity modules (i.e., sets of connected diseases) identified in the comorbidity network analyses. During a median follow-up of 9 years, 28 medical conditions and mortality related to nervous system disease showed significant associations with prior objective hearing loss. Subsequently, the comorbidity network identified four comorbidity modules (i.e., neurodegenerative, respiratory, psychiatric, and cardiometabolic diseases), with the most pronounced association noted for the module related to neurodegenerative diseases (meta-hazard ratio [HR] = 2.00, 95%confidence interval [CI] 1.67–2.39). For subjective hearing loss, we found 57 associated medical conditions, which were partitioned into four modules (i.e., diseases rel