Dietary fat intake and risk of disabling hearing impairment: a prospective population-based cohort study

Abstract

Purpose To examine the associations of specific dietary fats with the risk of disabling hearing impairment in the UK Biobank study. Methods This cohort study investigated 105,592 participants (47,308 men and 58,284 women) aged ≥ 40 years. Participants completed a minimum of one valid 24-h recall (Oxford Web-Q). Dietary intake of total fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), saturated fatty acids (SFA), and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) was assessed at baseline. Functional auditory capacity was measured with a digit triplet test (DTT), and disabling hearing impairment was defined as a speech reception threshold in noise > − 3.5 dB in any physical exam performed during the follow-up. Results Over a median follow-up of 3.2 (SD: 2.1) years, 832 men and 872 women developed disabling hearing impairment. After adjustment for potential confounders, including lifestyles, exposure to high-intensity sounds, ototoxic medication and comorbidity, the hazard ratios (HRs), and 95% confidence interval (CI) of disabling hearing function, comparing extreme quintiles of intakes were 0.91 (0.71–1.17) for total fat, 1.09 (0.83–1.44) for PUFA, 0.85 (0.64–1.13) for SFA and 1.01 (0.74–1.36) for MUFA among men. Among women, HRs comparing extreme intakes were 0.98 (0.78–1.24) for total fat, 0.69 (0.53–0.91) for PUFA, 1.26 (0.96–1.65) for SFA, and 0.91 (0.68–1.23) for MUFA. Replacing 5% of energy intake from SFA with an equivalent energy from PUFA was associated with 25% risk reduction (HR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.74–0.77) among women. Conclusions PUFA intake was associated with decreased risk of disabling hearing function in women, but not in men.

Serum polyunsaturated fatty acids and hearing threshold shifts in adults in the United States: A cross-sectional study

“…The association of PUFAs with hearing level is more obvious in middle-aged participants younger than 60 years, indicating that the onset of PUFAs' effect on age-related hearing impairment is much earlier than that previously reported ( 11 , 13 ). PUFAs showed a protective role for hearing in men and a detrimental role in women, which is in contrast with previous findings ( 12 , 14 ). More studies are needed to better understand the differences between men and women to reach a consensus.…”

“…The results of our study showed that AA and DHA were inversely associated with low-frequency PTA after adjusting for related cofounders and that EDA and DHA were inversely related to low-frequency PTA in men. The benefit of PUFAs on low-frequency hearing levels was almost consistent with findings of previous population-based and animal studies ( 11 – 14 , 20 ). Cochlear blood flow must be well regulated to meet the metabolic demand of the inner ear.…”

“…Three previous population-based studies found that higher increases in n-3 PUFAs were associated with reduced HL. HL was estimated using pure-tone audiometry at speech frequency (500, 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 Hz) or by self-report ( 11 , 12 , 14 ). The study conducted by Dullemeijer et al ( 13 ) testing plasma n-3 PUFAs showed an inverse association between n-3 PUFAs and low-frequency hearing levels, which were consistent with the results of a prior study ( 13 ).…”

“…Our analyses were further adjusted for confounding factors that included age, sex, race, education level, BMI, diabetes, hypertension, serum cotinine level, and noise exposure that could result in a misinterpretation. The effects of PUFAs on both low-frequency and high-frequency hearing levels were estimated, with the result of broader frequency estimates than those in previous research studies ( 11 , 12 , 14 ). In addition, individual serum PUFAs were used as a valid estimate of dietary intake of fatty acids ( 29 ).…”

“…To date, there have been only a few population-based studies investigating the association between PUFAs and the risk of hearing impairment ( 11 – 15 ), three of which studied the effect of total dietary PUFA intake, particularly n-3 PUFAs on low-frequency or speech-frequency hearing impairment ( 11 , 12 , 14 ). Two studies examined the relationship between plasma PUFAs and hearing status but only in old or young people ( 13 , 15 ).…”