Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, Paris-Lodron-University Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, Paris-Lodron-University Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria; Neuroscience Institute, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical, University, Salzburg, Austria.
Hear Res. 2024 Nov;453:109135. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2024.109135. Epub 2024 Oct 18.
Aging is related to deterioration of bodily and neural functions, leading to various disorders and symptoms, including the development of dementia, hearing loss, or tinnitus. Understanding how these phenomena are intertwined and how aging affects those is crucial for prevention and the future development of interventions.
We utilized the UK Biobank which includes a total of 502,382 participants between 40 and 70 years old. We used logistic regression models and cox proportional hazard models and compared hazard ratios.
The odds of reporting tinnitus in the older age group (i.e., older than 58 years) were increased by 53.6 % and a one decibel increase in the speech-reception thresholds enhanced the odds for tinnitus by 13.0 %. For our second analysis regarding hearing loss, the risk of dementia increased by 14.0 % with an increase by one decibel in the speech-reception threshold score. In terms of aging, each additional year increased the risk by 17.3 %. Tinnitus alone showed a significant influence with a hazard ratio of 52.1 %, however, when adding hearing loss, age and various covariates, the effect vanished.
Findings confirm that tinnitus is indeed related to aging, but presumably independent of the aging processes accompanying the development of dementia. This highlights the urge to further investigate the impact of aging on neural processes that are relevant for alterations in the auditory systems (e.g., leading to the development of tinnitus or hearing loss) as well as for increased vulnerability in terms of neurodegenerative diseases.
衰老与身体和神经功能的恶化有关，导致各种疾病和症状，包括痴呆、听力损失或耳鸣的发展。了解这些现象是如何相互交织的，以及衰老如何影响这些现象，对于预防和未来干预措施的发展至关重要。
我们利用了 UK Biobank，其中包括了年龄在 40 至 70 岁之间的总共 502382 名参与者。我们使用了逻辑回归模型和 cox 比例风险模型，并比较了风险比。
在年龄较大的组（即大于 58 岁）中报告耳鸣的几率增加了 53.6%，而言语接受阈值每增加 1 分贝，耳鸣的几率就增加了 13.0%。对于我们关于听力损失的第二项分析，言语接受阈值评分每增加 1 分贝，痴呆的风险增加 14.0%。就衰老而言，每年增加的风险增加 17.3%。单独的耳鸣有显著的影响，风险比为 52.1%，但是当加入听力损失、年龄和各种协变量时，这种影响就消失了。
研究结果证实，耳鸣确实与衰老有关，但可能与痴呆症发展伴随的衰老过程无关。这强调了需要进一步研究衰老对与听觉系统改变相关的神经过程的影响（例如，导致耳鸣或听力损失的发展）以及神经退行性疾病的易感性增加的影响。
