ABSTRACT
Objective
The role of ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics in developing hearing loss remains uncertain. Thus, our objective was to analyze the connection between hearing loss and ideal CVH metrics in a 10-year retrospective cohort.
Study Design
Retrospective cohort study.
Setting
A health management center in Taiwan.
Participants
Participants who underwent the first annual health check-up between 2000 and 2006 and with a follow-up check-up more than ten years later.
Main outcome measures
Hearing thresholds were measured at 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, and 4000 Hz. Individuals with a best ear pure-tone audiometry four-frequency average of >25 dB HL were defined as having hearing loss. The ideal CVH metrics were classified into 7 categories based on the American Heart Association's definition. The associations of hearing loss with the sum of the ideal CVH metrics and each ideal CVH metric were examined by multiple logistic regression analysis.
Results
The present study consisted of 6,974 participants. The 10-year follow-up showed that the odds ratio (OR) of hearing loss was 0.74 for participants with 5-7 ideal CVH metrics (95% CI, 0.59-0.93, p=0.01) compared to those with 0-2 ideal CVH metrics. Among the CVH metrics, participants with an ideal smoking status might have reduced odds of developing hearing loss; the OR was 0.72 (95% CI, 0.58-0.89, p=0.003).
Conclusions
Participants with an increased number of ideal CVH metrics and better performance on the smoking metric had a significantly protective effect regarding hearing loss development.