Associations of Retinal Vessel Caliber With Hearing Status in Childhood and Midlife: A Cross-Generational Population-Based Study

Association of Polygenic Risk Scores for Hearing Difficulty in Older Adults With Hearing Loss in Mid-Childhood and Midlife: A Population-Based Cross-sectional Study Within the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

Importance

Although more than 200 genes have been associated with monogenic congenital hearing loss, the polygenic contribution to hearing decline across the life course remains largely unknown.

Objective

To examine the association of polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for self-reported hearing difficulty among adults (40-69 years) with measured hearing and speech reception abilities in mid-childhood and early midlife.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This was a population-based cross-sectional study nested within the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children that included 1608 children and 1642 adults. Pure tone audiometry, speech reception threshold against noise, and genetic data were evaluated. Linear and logistic regressions of PRSs were conducted for hearing outcomes. Study analysis was performed from March 1 to 31, 2022.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Genotypes were generated from saliva or blood using global single-nucleotide polymorphisms array and PRSs derived from published genome-wide association studies of self-reported hearing difficulty (PRS1) and hearing aid use (PRS2). Hearing outcomes were continuous using the high Fletcher index (mean hearing threshold, 1, 2, and 4 kHz) and speech reception threshold (SRT); and dichotomized for bilateral hearing loss of more than 15 dB HL and abnormal SRT.

Results

Included in the study were 1608 children (mean [SD] age, 11.5 [0.5] years; 812 [50.5%] male children; 1365 [84.9%] European and 243[15.1%] non-European) and 1642 adults (mean [SD] age, 43.7 [5.1] years; 1442 [87.8%] female adults; 1430 [87.1%] European and 212 [12.9%] non-European individuals). In adults, both PRS1 and PRS2 were associated with hearing thresholds. For each SD increment in PRS1 and PRS2, hearing thresholds were 0.4 (95% CI, 0-0.8) decibel hearing level (dB HL) and 0.9 (95% CI, 0.5-1.2) dB HL higher on the high Fletcher index, respectively. Each SD increment in PRS increased the odds of adult hearing loss of more than 15 dB HL by 10% to 30% (OR for PRS1, 1.1; 95% CI, 1.0-1.3; OR for PRS2, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1-1.5). Similar but attenuated patterns were noted in children (OR for PRS1, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.8-1.2; OR for PRS2, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.0-1.5). Both PRSs showed minimal evidence of associations with speech reception thresholds or abnormal SRT in children or adults.

Conclusions and Relevance

This population-based cross-sectional study of PRSs for self-reported hearing difficulty among adults found an association with hearing ability in mid-childhood. This adds to the evidence that age-related hearing loss begins as early as the first decade of life and that polygenic inheritance may play a role together with other environmental risk factors.

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

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.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00394-021-02644-7.

Retinal Vascular Density on Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography and Age-related Central and Peripheral Hearing Loss in a Southern Italian Older Population

BACKGROUND

Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and retinal vessel changes have both been associated to neurodegeneration/dementia, suggesting a possible link between these two conditions in older age. We aimed to determine whether superficial and deep vascular density (SVD and DVD) of the capillary plexi of macular vasculature can be associated with peripheral ARHL and age-related central auditory central processing (CAPD).

METHODS

We analyzed data on 886 older participants (65 years+, age range:65-92 years) in the cross-sectional population-based Salus in Apulia Study. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) was used to measure SVD and DVD of the capillary plexi of the macula at the 3-mm circle area centered on the fovea (whole retina), the parafoveal quadrant, and foveal quadrant. Disabling peripheral ARHL was defined as >40 dB HL of pure tone average on the frequencies from 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 KHz in the better ear, and age-related CAPD as <50% at the Synthetic Sentence Identification with Ipsilateral Competitive Message test in at least one ear.

RESULTS

DVD at the whole retina and at the parafoveal quadrant were inversely associated only with age-related CAPD [odds ratio (OR):0.93; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.88-0.96 and OR:0.94; 95 CI:0.90-0.99, respectively]. No further associations with peripheral ARHL were evident.

CONCLUSIONS

Retinal vasculature is associated with central auditory processing pathology, possibly playing an important role in early detection and intervention. The association of retinal vascular density with age-related CAPD may bring us a further step forward in understanding the biological mechanisms underlying the links between neurodegeneration/dementia and ARHL.