AUTHOR=Zheng Jianrong , Cheng Yajing , Zhan Ying , Liu Cong , Lu Bihua , Hu Jun 

TITLE=Cardiocerebrovascular risk in sensorineural hearing loss: results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015 to 2018

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2023.1115252

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2023.1115252

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=Objective：The aim of this study is to determine whether the risks of cardiocerebrovascular disease are relevant to sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) based on a national database.
Methods: A total of 1321 participants aged from 18-69 with complete data including medical history and audiometry from NHANES databased (2015-2018) were analyzed. All included participants had available hearing data and their hearing was measured and calculated an average threshold respectively at low-frequency pure tone average (LFPTA; 500, 1000, 2000Hz) frequencies high-frequency pure tone average (HFPTA; 3000, 4000, 6000, 8000 kHz). SNHL was defined as an average pure-tone greater than 20dB in at least 1 ear. Multivariable models to assess the association between cardiocerebrovascular risks and SNHL will be involved in this study. 
Results：The prevalence of stroke was 1.62% in individuals with SNHL and 0.99% in individuals with normal hearing (P= 0.02). Higher cardiovascular risk score was presented in SNHL patients compared to the healthy hearing participants(1.58±0.07 vs. 0.90±0.05, P＜0.0001). Stroke was associated with 3.67-fold increase in the odds of SNHL (95% CI: 1.19–11.31, P =0.03) in univariable analyses, and the association (OR=4.22, 95%CI=1.25-14.21, P=0.03) still existed after adjusting for several covariates. A multivariable regression model indicated another positive correlation between the cardiovascular risk and SNHL (OR=1.66, 95%CI=1.41-1.95, P＜0.0001), but no significant relationship was shown with all covariates adjusted. However, significant values were respectively seen in relationship between SNHL and aging as well as gender no matter in an univariable regression or a multivariable regression. 
Conclusions：Our findings suggest that higher cardiocerebrovascular risk burden was associated with a potential risk of SNHL and the relationship potentially resulted from aging and gender. Future longitudinal studies are warranted to add to the mechanistic and pathologic vascular hypothesis of SNHL.