Smoking Increases Risk of Hearing Loss

​Smokers are at a higher risk of developing hearing loss, concludes a recently published research.

In an observational study using data from the yearly health checkups of 50,195 adults with no hearing loss at baseline, researchers found a solid evidence that links smoking with increased risk of hearing loss, especially high-frequency hearing loss. The study also reports that the excess risk disappears shortly after study participants quit smoking.
 
"Hearing loss is common in the adult population," said Huanhuan Hu, PhD, lead author of the study. "Identifying modifiable risk factors is important for hearing health care."
 
"Smoking has been associated with prevalent hearing loss in cross-sectional studies. However, few prospective cohort studies have examined the association between smoking and hearing loss, and their findings conflict," Hu told The Hearing Journal. "Our J-ECOH Study has high quality data on hearing and smoking. Thus, we examined the association between smoking and hearing loss."
 
During the follow-up sessions, which were conducted to a maximum of eight years, high-frequency hearing loss was seen in 3,532 participants and low-frequency hearing loss in 1,575. Researchers found that the risk of high- and low-frequency hearing loss increased with the number of cigarettes smoked per day. Smoking cessation led to decline in hearing loss risk, even among those who stopped smoking less than five years before baseline.
 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns the public that cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United states, responsible for more than one in five deaths every year. CDC also reports that in 2016, approximately 37.8 million adults  in the country are cigarette smokers and more than 16 million have smoking-related disease.
 
The study by Hu and his colleagues at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Japan contributes to the evidence that smoking causes preventable diseases.
 
"Our study provides reliable evidence that smoking may cause hearing loss and the excess risk can be eliminated through quitting smoking," Hu explained. "Smoking will be more widely acknowledged as a risk factor for hearing loss. In addition, these findings can motivate smokers to quit smoking." 

Published: 4/2/2018 5:32:00 PM

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