Division of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
Epidemiology. 2012 Mar;23(2):328-31. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e318245996e.
Hearing impairment is one of the most common permanent disabilities in the western world. Although hearing ability normally declines with age, there is great individual variation in age of onset, progression, and severity, indicating that individual susceptibility plays a role. The aim of the present study was to explore the relative importance of genetic and environmental effects in the etiology of impaired hearing.
From August 1995 to June 1997, the total adult population of Nord-Trøndelag County, Norway, was invited to take part in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study. The survey included as an integrated project the Nord-Trøndelag Hearing Loss Study with pure-tone audiometry assessment of the standard frequencies 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 kHz on 51,574 participants aged 20 to 101 years. We obtained information from Statistics Norway identifying 11,263 sibling pairs. After age stratification, we assessed similarity in hearing thresholds between siblings using polychoric correlations. The contribution of genetic effects in hearing ability was calculated.
The upper limit of the heritability of hearing loss was 0.36. We found little evidence for sex differences in the relative importance of genetic effects.
There is a substantial genetic contribution to individual variation in hearing thresholds.
听力损伤是西方世界最常见的永久性残疾之一。尽管听力通常会随着年龄的增长而下降，但听力障碍的发病年龄、进展速度和严重程度存在很大的个体差异，这表明个体易感性发挥了作用。本研究旨在探讨遗传和环境因素在听力障碍发病机制中的相对重要性。
1995 年 8 月至 1997 年 6 月，挪威特隆赫姆郡的所有成年居民受邀参加了特隆赫姆郡健康研究。该调查包括一项综合性项目，即特隆赫姆听力障碍研究，对 51574 名年龄在 20 至 101 岁的参与者进行了标准频率 0.25、0.5、1、2、3、4、6 和 8 kHz 的纯音听力测试。我们从挪威统计局获得了识别出的 11263 对兄弟姐妹的信息。在年龄分层后，我们使用多元相关系数评估了兄弟姐妹之间听力阈值的相似性。计算了遗传效应对听力能力的贡献。
听力损失的遗传度上限为 0.36。我们几乎没有发现遗传效应的相对重要性存在性别差异的证据。
个体听力阈值的差异存在大量遗传因素。
