Wattamwar K, et al. - Authors gauged the relationship of cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related risk factors with auditory function among adults > 80 years old. Findings suggested a relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and disease and worse hearing and a greater rate of hearing deterioration. In women, this relationship was attenuated, and this could be because of the cardioprotective effects of estrogen.

Methods

• Experts analyzed the audiological data and medical records from 2001 through 2014 of 433 patients aged 80 to 106 years at an academic medical center in 2017.
• They compared the degree of low- and high-frequency hearing loss of participants with coronary artery disease, diabetes, hypertension, history of cerebrovascular accident, and smoking status with that of disease-free individuals.
• Moreover, they determined the date of hearing loss.

Results

• Findings suggested that the presence of at least 1 cardiovascular morbidity among the 433 patients (67% female; mean [SD] age, 89 [5.8] years) was related to elevated mean (SD) low-frequency pure-tone average (LFPTA) of 42.4 (1.6) vs 36.9 (3.5) decibels hearing loss (dB HL), a difference of 5.47 (95% CI, 4.15-9.49) dB HL.
• As per data, among the 96 patients with 2 audiograms performed at age 80 years or older from which the rate of hearing loss could be calculated, 32 patients had CVD or related risk factors and 64 were healthy controls.
• Accelerated hearing loss was noted in those with at least 1 disease.
• Results demonstrated that a faster mean (SD) decline in LFPTA of 1.90 (0.27) was experienced by patients with cardiovascular morbidity vs 1.18 (0.42) dB HL/y, a difference of 0.72 (95% CI, 0.08-1.36) dB HL/y.
• Experts noted that coronary artery disease had the highest correlation with audiometric thresholds and was related to hearing loss at all frequencies tested and with poor word recognition score.
• In men, hearing loss was more strongly related to CVD risk factors than in women.