Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, Anhui, PR China.
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, Anhui, PR China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2022 Dec 1;247:114279. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.114279. Epub 2022 Nov 8.
Exposure to heavy elements is considered one of the risks of hearing loss. The combined effect of multiple metals on different hearing losses has not been extensively studied.
This study deals with the association between different metals (Ba, Cd, Co, Cs, Mo, Pb, Mn, Sn, Sb, Tl, W) and hearing loss in the 2013-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Associations were estimated by a generalized linear regression model (GLM) adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, educational level, marital status, drinking status, hypertension, diabetes, smoking status, noise exposure, body mass index, and income-poverty ratio. The joint effects of mixed exposure were assessed by weighted quantile sum (WQS) model and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR). The effect of multiple metals on speech-frequency hearing loss (SFHL) and high-frequency hearing loss (HFHL) was further calculated. The odds ratio (OR) indicates the risk of every metal exposure.
A total of 2205 adult participants were enrolled from NHANES. Cd, Pb, Sb and Sn had significant effects on total hearing loss. The WQS model found that mixed exposure to heavy elements was significantly positively associated with total hearing loss (OR: 1.136; 95% CI: 1.031, 1.253) after adjusting for various covariates. The ORs of mixed exposure in the SFHL and HFHL groups were 1.066 (95% CI: 0.994, 1.143) and 1.102 (95% CI: 1.013, 1.199), respectively. BKMR found a significant positive association between multiple metals and hearing loss. The results showed that there may be potential interactions between Cd, Pb and other metals.
Multiple metals have joint effects on hearing loss in the United States. The findings provide practitioners with important scientific evidence for possible interventions.
暴露于重金属被认为是听力损失的风险因素之一。多种金属对不同类型听力损失的综合影响尚未得到广泛研究。
本研究涉及 2013-2018 年全国健康与营养调查（NHANES）中不同金属（钡、镉、钴、铯、钼、铅、锰、锡、锑、铊、钨）与听力损失之间的关系。通过广义线性回归模型（GLM）调整年龄、性别、种族/民族、教育水平、婚姻状况、饮酒状况、高血压、糖尿病、吸烟状况、噪声暴露、体重指数和收入-贫困比来估计关联。使用加权分位数总和（WQS）模型和贝叶斯核机器回归（BKMR）评估混合暴露的联合效应。进一步计算了多种金属对言语频率听力损失（SFHL）和高频听力损失（HFHL）的影响。比值比（OR）表示每种金属暴露的风险。
共纳入来自 NHANES 的 2205 名成年参与者。镉、铅、锑和锡对总听力损失有显著影响。WQS 模型发现，在调整各种协变量后，混合暴露于重金属与总听力损失呈显著正相关（OR：1.136；95%CI：1.031，1.253）。SFHL 和 HFHL 组混合暴露的 OR 分别为 1.066（95%CI：0.994，1.143）和 1.102（95%CI：1.013，1.199）。BKMR 发现多种金属与听力损失之间存在显著正相关。结果表明，镉、铅和其他金属之间可能存在潜在的相互作用。
多种金属对美国的听力损失有联合作用。这些发现为从业者提供了可能干预的重要科学证据。
