Department of Psychiatry, Beitou Branch, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jul 22;10(1):12134. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-69243-0.
Tinnitus has been implied as a "soft" sign of neurodegenerative disease, which is characterized by progressive loss of neuronal function, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aimed to determine whether the risk of developing AD/PD increases after having tinnitus. We conducted a retrospective matched cohort study with 12,657 tinnitus patients and 25,314 controls from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan with almost 10 years follow-up. Tinnitus-related risk on developing AD/PD followingly was determined by the Cox regression to identify potential confounding factors. Through the 10-year follow-up period, 398 individuals with tinnitus (3.1%) and 501 control individuals (2.0%) developed AD (P < 0.001), and 211 tinnitus patients (1.7%) and 249 control patients (1.0%) developed PD (P < 0.001). Compared with controls, patients with tinnitus were 1.54 times more likely to develop AD (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.34-1.78, P < 0.001) and 1.56 times more likely to develop PD (95% CI 1.29-1.89, P < 0.001), after adjusting confounding factors. Our results indicate an association between tinnitus and higher risk of developing AD and PD. Additional physical comorbidities may also increase the risk of developing AD and PD.
耳鸣被暗示为神经退行性疾病的“软性”标志，其特征是神经元功能逐渐丧失，如阿尔茨海默病（AD）和帕金森病（PD）。本研究旨在确定患有耳鸣后发生 AD/PD 的风险是否会增加。我们对来自台湾国民健康保险研究数据库（NHIRD）的 12657 名耳鸣患者和 25314 名对照者进行了回顾性匹配队列研究，随访时间近 10 年。通过 Cox 回归确定耳鸣相关风险，以确定潜在的混杂因素。在 10 年的随访期间，398 名耳鸣患者（3.1%）和 501 名对照者（2.0%）发生 AD（P<0.001），211 名耳鸣患者（1.7%）和 249 名对照者（1.0%）发生 PD（P<0.001）。与对照组相比，调整混杂因素后，患有耳鸣的患者发生 AD 的可能性增加 1.54 倍（95%置信区间 1.34-1.78，P<0.001），发生 PD 的可能性增加 1.56 倍（95%置信区间 1.29-1.89，P<0.001）。我们的结果表明耳鸣与发生 AD 和 PD 的风险增加之间存在关联。其他身体合并症也可能增加发生 AD 和 PD 的风险。
