Association of Metabolic Syndrome with Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Abstract

The prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss has increased along with increases in life expectancy and exposure to noisy environments. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of co-occurring conditions that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, along with other conditions that affect the blood vessels. Components of MetS include insulin resistance, body weight, lipid concentration, blood pressure, and blood glucose concentration, as well as other features of insulin resistance such as microalbuminuria. MetS has become a major public health problem affecting 20–30% of the global population. This study utilized health examination to investigate whether metabolic syndrome was related to hearing loss. Methods: A total of 94,223 people who underwent health check-ups, including hearing tests, from January 2010 to December 2020 were evaluated. Subjects were divided into two groups, with and without metabolic syndrome. In addition, Scopus, Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane libraries were systematically searched, using keywords such as “hearing loss” and “metabolic syndrome”, for studies that evaluated the relationship between the two. Results: Of the 94,223 subjects, 11,414 (12.1%) had metabolic syndrome and 82,809 did not. The mean ages of subjects in the two groups were 46.1 and 43.9 years, respectively. A comparison of hearing thresholds by age in subjects with and without metabolic syndrome showed that the average pure tone hearing thresholds were significantly higher in subjects with metabolic syndrome than in subjects without it in all age groups. (p < 0.001) Rates of hearing loss in subjects with 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the components of metabolic syndrome were 7.9%, 12.1%, 13.8%, 13.8%, 15.5% and 16.3%, respectively, indicating a significant association between the number of components of metabolic syndrome and the rate of hearing loss (p < 0.0001). The odds ratio of hearing loss was significantly higher in subjects with four components of metabolic syndrome: waist circumference, blood pressure, and triglyceride and fasting blood sugar concentrations (p < 0.0001). (4) Conclusions: The number of components of the metabolic syndrome is positively correlated with the rate of sensorineural hearing loss.

Association between atherosclerosis, hearing recovery, and hearing in the healthy ear in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss: a retrospective chart analysis

“…Although there are no reports on risk factors associated with an increase in hearing thresholds on the healthy side of patients with ISSNHL, the primary risk factors are those related to aging. There are a number of reported risk factors for age-related hearing loss, including advancing age, being male, smoking, alcohol use, DM, HTN, heart disease, noise exposure, and genetic predisposition 7,[14][15][16][17][18]20,21,46 . In the present study, older ages, being male, and vascular disease were associated with higher PTA thresholds on the healthy side.…”

“…In the present study, we focused our study on audiograms of the healthy side in patients with ISSNHL. The pattern of the audiogram of the patient’s healthy side may reflect normal changes related not only to aging 6 , but also to a variety of medical conditions and factors related to a patient’s background, such as whether the patient has atherosclerosis and is subject to certain genetic factors 7 , 8 . Therefore, we hypothesized that the audiogram on the healthy side of patients with ISSNHL could be a useful additional measure to aid in the diagnosis and prognosis of ISSNHL, which is currently not done.…”

“…We were particularly interested in evaluating the influence of known factors linked to atherosclerosis on ISS-NHL occurrence and severity, because these factors are reported to also present a risk for triggering ISSNHL, and they can impact both severity of ISSNHL and the progression of age-related hearing loss 7,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . We hypothesized that certain atherosclerosis factors affect hearing levels on both the affected and healthy sides in ISSNHL patients and have the potential to provide an additional measure to classify ISSNHL patients.…”

The influence of metabolic syndrome on age-related hearing loss from the perspective of mitochondrial dysfunction

“…The negative influence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) on hearing relates to the number of diagnostic components met Rim et al (2021) designed a study to explore the relationship between MetS and sensorineural hearing loss in Korea. The results showed that MetS subjects had higher mean puretone hearing thresholds than subjects without MetS in all age groups (P < 0.001); moreover, among MetS subjects, there was a significant association between the number of MetS diagnostic components met and the hearing loss rate (P < 0.0001).…”

Effect of a Community Gerontology Program on the Control of Metabolic Syndrome in Mexican Older Adults

“…In this regard, an increase in the risk of several alterations has been reported, including decreased muscle strength and sarcopenia, frailty, cognitive deficits, sleep disturbances, multiple chemical sensitivity, sensorineural hearing loss, kidney stone disease, etc. [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”