The Effects of Smoking and Alcohol Consumption on Age-Related Hearing Loss: The Blue Mountains Hearing Study
- 1 April 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Ear & Hearing
- Vol. 31 (2), 277-282
- https://doi.org/10.1097/aud.0b013e3181c8e902
Abstract
Objectives: We aimed to investigate the temporal association between smoking or alcohol consumption and hearing loss, and to confirm previously published cross-sectional associations. Design: The Blue Mountains Hearing Study is a population-based survey of age-related hearing loss conducted in a defined suburban area, west of Sydney. Hearing loss was measured in 2956 participants (aged 50+ yrs) and was defined as the pure-tone average of frequencies 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 kHz >25 dB HL in the better ear (bilateral hearing loss). Alcohol consumption and smoking status were measured using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) that compared the chances of having hearing loss in participants who did or did not smoke or consume alcohol, after adjusting for other factors previously reported to be associated with hearing loss. Results: The prevalence of hearing loss at baseline was 33.0% (N = 929) and the 5-year incidence of hearing loss was 17.9% (N = 156). Cross-sectional analysis demonstrated a significant protective association between the moderate consumption of alcohol (>1 but ≤2 drinks/day) and hearing function in older adults (compared with nondrinkers), OR 0.75 (95% CI, 0.57 to 0.98). Current smokers not exposed to occupational noise had a significantly higher likelihood of hearing loss after adjusting for multiple variables, OR 1.63 (95% CI, 1.01 to 2.64). A formal likelihood ratio test demonstrated that the interaction between smoking and noise exposure was not significant (p = 0.23). When the joint effects of alcohol consumption and smoking on hearing were explored, there was a trend for alcohol to have a protective relationship with hearing loss in smokers, but this was not statistically significant. However, the 5-year incidence of hearing loss was not predicted by either smoking or alcohol consumption. Conclusions: This study confirms previously reported associations between alcohol consumption or smoking and prevalent hearing loss, but these were not demonstrated in temporal data. Other risk factors could confer greater vulnerability or cause the initial damage to hearing. Future large population-based studies, exploring the influence of other risk factors on the development of age-related hearing loss are warranted.Keywords
This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
- Prevalence of Age-Related Hearing Loss in Older Adults: Blue Mountains StudyJAMA Internal Medicine, 2009
- Occupational Noise, Smoking, and a High Body Mass Index are Risk Factors for Age-related Hearing Impairment and Moderate Alcohol Consumption is Protective: A European Population-based Multicenter StudyJournal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 2008
- Hearing loss associated with smoking and occupational noise exposure in a Japanese metal working companyInternationales Archiv für Arbeitsmedizin, 2005
- Joint effects of smoking, noise exposure and age on hearing lossOccupational Medicine, 2005
- Age-related hearing loss: current researchCurrent Opinion in Otolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery, 2003
- Moderate Alcohol Consumption and Hearing Loss: A Protective EffectJournal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2000
- Cigarette Smoking and Hearing LossJAMA, 1998
- Visual Acuity and the Causes of Visual Loss in AustraliaOphthalmology, 1996
- The Relation of Hearing in the Elderly to the Presence of Cardiovascular Disease and Cardiovascular Risk FactorsJAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, 1993
- PresbycusisOtolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, 1989