Department of Emergency, Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital, Taoyuan 32549, Taiwan.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 11490, Taiwan.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 18;19(10):6144. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19106144.
(1) Background: The etiologies of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) remain unclear. The level of mean particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5) was not associated with SSHL, but the maximum PM2.5 level exhibited a negative association with SSHL in Korea. Exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO) for 2 weeks increased the risk of SSHL. The lag effects of SSHL after air pollution exposure were limited. We aimed to evaluate the association of SSHL with air pollution exposure to determine whether air pollution exposure caused delayed effects. (2) Methods: This observational study used inpatient data obtained from electronic health records at the Tri-Service General Hospital from 2011 to 2019. The data of all SSHL patients were retrieved. The air quality dataset from Songshan station from 2011 to 2019 was used. The main outcomes were the relative risks (RRs) of SSHL associated with PM2.5, O, and NO exposures within 1 month. The relationships between these factors were examined using distributed lag nonlinear time series models. (3) Results: The RR of SSHL associated with PM2.5 exposure was 1.195 (95% confidence interval (C.I.: 1.047-1.363) for a 10 unit increase at a lag of 7 days. The RR of SSHL associated with O exposure was 1.14 (95% C.I.: 1.003-1.3) for a 10 unit increase at a lag of 9 days. The RR of SSHL associated with NO exposure was 1.284 (95% C.I.: 1.05-1.57) for a 10 unit increase at a lag of 23 days. (4) Conclusions: In our study, SSHL was confirmed to be associated with air pollution exposure with a lag effect. We discussed possible mechanisms to explore possible biological hypotheses and support further research. Large-scale studies including participants with other ethnicities and causal relationships are needed to confirm our findings.
(1) 背景：突发性聋（SSHL）的病因仍不清楚。直径为 2.5μm 或以下的平均颗粒物（PM2.5）水平与 SSHL 无关，但韩国最大 PM2.5 水平与 SSHL 呈负相关。二氧化氮（NO）暴露 2 周会增加 SSHL 的风险。空气污染暴露后 SSHL 的滞后效应有限。我们旨在评估 SSHL 与空气污染暴露的关联，以确定空气污染暴露是否会造成延迟效应。(2) 方法：本观察性研究使用 2011 年至 2019 年三军总医院电子健康记录中的住院数据。检索了所有 SSHL 患者的数据。使用来自松山站的 2011 年至 2019 年的空气质量数据集。主要结果是 PM2.5、O 和 NO 暴露 1 个月内与 SSHL 相关的相对风险（RR）。使用分布式滞后非线性时间序列模型检查这些因素之间的关系。(3) 结果：PM2.5 暴露与 SSHL 相关的 RR 为 1.195（95%置信区间（CI）：1.047-1.363），在滞后 7 天时，PM2.5 增加 10 个单位。O 暴露与 SSHL 相关的 RR 为 1.14（95% CI：1.003-1.3），在滞后 9 天时，O 增加 10 个单位。NO 暴露与 SSHL 相关的 RR 为 1.284（95% CI：1.05-1.57），在滞后 23 天时，NO 增加 10 个单位。(4) 结论：在我们的研究中，证实 SSHL 与空气污染暴露具有滞后效应有关。我们讨论了可能的机制，以探索可能的生物学假说，并支持进一步的研究。需要包括其他种族参与者的大规模研究和因果关系来证实我们的发现。
