Hearing Loss May Warn of CVD in Older Adults

A study published in JAMA Otalaryngology associated cardiovascular comorbidities with accelerated hearing loss in people older than 80, suggesting those conditions could be treated to decelerate this age-related decline, reports Cardiovascular Business . The researchers studied 433 individuals older than 80, average age 89 and 67 percent female. In comparison to people with no cardiovascular comorbidities, those with at least one condition averaged additional hearing loss of 5.47 decibels when quantified by low-frequency pure-tone average (LFPTA). The comorbidities included coronary artery disease (CAD), hypertension, diabetes, history of cerebrovascular accident, and smoking. Subjects with at least one comorbidity had a LFPTA hearing loss of 1.90 decibels annually, compared to 1.18 annually in those without any cardiovascular disease. CAD had the highest correlation with hearing loss of any of the conditions studied, and its presence was linked to exacerbating word recognition equivalent to three additional years of age-related decline. Moreover, the comorbidities appeared to affect men more than women, with CAD in men associated with 8.81 decibel hearing loss in mean LFPTA and 6.82 decibel hearing loss in high-frequency pure-tone average, versus a 4.27 decibel LFPTA loss in women. Meanwhile, only men with hypertension and diabetes had statistically significant hearing loss compared to healthy controls. Most of the mechanisms suggested to explain the connection between CVD and hearing loss are based on the notion that CVD damages blood flow to the cochlea.