Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to assess hearing loss according to maternal age at childbirth and parity. Materials and Methods: The data used in this study were obtained from the 2008-2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. This study included a total of 3,961 females that were subdivided into groups of unilateral and bilateral hearing loss. Pure tone threshold above 40 dB was defined as hearing loss. T-tests or Chi-squared tests were performed to identify differences in baseline clinical characteristics. A multivariate regression and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to identify associations between childbearing age and hearing loss. Result: Bilateral hearing loss was significantly higher in women with younger age at first birth and older age at last birth. Bilateral hearing loss patients had higher parity than unilateral hearing loss patients, and unilateral hearing loss patients had higher parity than normal hearing group. Age at first childbirth showed a positive relationship with hearing loss after adjusting for lifestyle factors. Age at last childbirth also showed a positive relationship with hearing loss after adjusting for life style factors. Parity showed a positive relationship with hearing loss after adjusting for life style factors. Conclusion: This study suggests that hearing loss is increased in females who experienced their first childbirth at a younger age or their last childbirth at a later age. Bilateral and unilateral hearing loss also have positive correlation with higher parity. Some studies suggest that estrogen has a protective effect on hearing function. Because childbearing age and parity could be related to the women’s estrogen level, future studies will be access the relationship between childbearing age and hearing loss, or the relationship between parity and hearing loss due to an effect of estrogen.
Highlights
Hearing function, especially in old age is important to the quality of life in an aging society
Pure tone threshold above 40 dB was defined as hearing loss
No relationship was observed between the epidemiological factors like BMI, current smoking, regular exercise, and the bilateral sensorineural hearing loss according to the simple regression analysis
Summary
Especially in old age (presbycusis) is important to the quality of life in an aging society. There are many studies aiming to identify the related risk factors of hearing loss [1-5], but only few studies are focusing on the relationship between the maternal age at childbirth and hearing loss. The authors investigated the associations of maternal age or parity with hearing loss in large number of Korean population. Epidemiologic studies conducted by government with national scale can provide powerful data for investigating the prevalence of disease and relationship between the disease and the epidemiological factors. The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) was started in 1998 to examine the general health and nutrition status of populations in South Korea. From 2008 to 2012, 10,000–12,000 individuals were selected annually, and they were interviewed on their health and nutrition and asked to undergo a basic health assessment which included blood pressure meas-
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