@article{HoffmanTJ2016,
title = {A Large Genome-Wide Association Study of Age-Related Hearing Impairment Using Electronic Health Records},
author = {Hoffmann, T. J.
Keats, B. J.
Yoshikawa, N.
Schaefer, C.
Risch, N.
Lustig, L. R.},
url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27764096},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-10-21},
journal = {PLoS Genetics},
abstract = {Age-related hearing impairment (ARHI), one of the most common sensory disorders, can be mitigated, but not cured or eliminated. To identify genetic influences underlying ARHI, we conducted a genome-wide association study of ARHI in 6,527 cases and 45,882 controls among the non-Hispanic whites from the Genetic Epidemiology Research on Adult Health and Aging (GERA) cohort. We identified two novel genome-wide significant SNPs: rs4932196 (odds ratio = 1.185, p = 4.0x10-11), 52Kb 3' of ISG20, which replicated in a meta-analysis of the other GERA race/ethnicity groups (1,025 cases, 12,388 controls, p = 0.00094) and in a UK Biobank case-control analysis (30,802 self-reported cases, 78,586 controls, p = 0.015); and rs58389158 (odds ratio = 1.132, p = 1.8x10-9), which replicated in the UK Biobank (p = 0.00021). The latter SNP lies just outside exon 8 and is highly correlated (r2 = 0.96) with the missense SNP rs5756795 in exon 7 of TRIOBP, a gene previously associated with prelingual nonsyndromic hearing loss. We further tested these SNPs in phenotypes from audiologist notes available on a subset of GERA (4,903 individuals), stratified by case/control status, to construct an independent replication test, and found a significant effect of rs58389158 on speech reception threshold (SRT; overall GERA meta-analysis p = 1.9x10-6). We also tested variants within exons of 132 other previously-identified hearing loss genes, and identified two common additional significant SNPs: rs2877561 (synonymous change in ILDR1, p = 6.2x10-5), which replicated in the UK Biobank (p = 0.00057), and had a significant GERA SRT (p = 0.00019) and speech discrimination score (SDS; p = 0.0019); and rs9493627 (missense change in EYA4, p = 0.00011) which replicated in the UK Biobank (p = 0.0095), other GERA groups (p = 0.0080), and had a consistent significant result for SRT (p = 0.041) and suggestive result for SDS (p = 0.081). Large cohorts with GWAS data and electronic health records may be a useful method to characterize the genetic architecture of ARHI.},
keywords = {GWAS, hearing, impairment},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Dawes2015b,
title = {The Effect of Prenatal and Childhood Development on Hearing, Vision and Cognition in Adulthood},
author = {Piers Dawes, Karen J. Cruickshanks,David R. Moore, Heather Fortnum, Mark Edmondson-Jones, Abby McCormack, Kevin J. Munro},
url = {http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0136590},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-08-24},
journal = {PLOS One},
abstract = {It is unclear what the contribution of prenatal versus childhood development is for adult cognitive and sensory function and age-related decline in function. We examined hearing, vision and cognitive function in adulthood according to self-reported birth weight (an index of prenatal development) and adult height (an index of early childhood development). Subsets (N = 37,505 to 433,390) of the UK Biobank resource were analysed according to visual and hearing acuity, reaction time and fluid IQ. Sensory and cognitive performance was reassessed after ~4 years (N = 2,438 to 17,659). In statistical modelling including age, sex, socioeconomic status, educational level, smoking, maternal smoking and comorbid disease, adult height was positively associated with sensory and cognitive function (partial correlations; pr 0.05 to 0.12, p < 0.001). Within the normal range of birth weight (10th to 90th percentile), there was a positive association between birth weight and sensory and cognitive function (pr 0.06 to 0.14, p < 0.001). Neither adult height nor birth weight was associated with change in sensory or cognitive function. These results suggest that adverse prenatal and childhood experiences are a risk for poorer sensory and cognitive function and earlier development of sensory and cognitive impairment in adulthood. This finding could have significant implications for preventing sensory and cognitive impairment in older age.},
keywords = {166, childhood, hearing, prenatal},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{KeidserG2016,
title = {The Effect of Functional Hearing and Hearing Aid Usage on Verbal Reasoning in a Large Community-Dwelling Population},
author = {Keidser, G.
Rudner, M.
Seeto, M.
Hygge, S.
Ronnberg, J.},
url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26244401},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-08-06},
journal = {Ear Hear},
abstract = {OBJECTIVES: Verbal reasoning performance is an indicator of the ability to think constructively in everyday life and relies on both crystallized and fluid intelligence. This study aimed to determine the effect of functional hearing on verbal reasoning when controlling for age, gender, and education. In addition, the study investigated whether hearing aid usage mitigated the effect and examined different routes from hearing to verbal reasoning. DESIGN: Cross-sectional data on 40- to 70-year-old community-dwelling participants from the UK Biobank resource were accessed. Data consisted of behavioral and subjective measures of functional hearing, assessments of numerical and linguistic verbal reasoning, measures of executive function, and demographic and lifestyle information. Data on 119,093 participants who had completed hearing and verbal reasoning tests were submitted to multiple regression analyses, and data on 61,688 of these participants, who had completed additional cognitive tests and provided relevant lifestyle information, were submitted to structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Poorer performance on the behavioral measure of functional hearing was significantly associated with poorer verbal reasoning in both the numerical and linguistic domains (p < 0.001). There was no association between the subjective measure of functional hearing and verbal reasoning. Functional hearing significantly interacted with education (p < 0.002), showing a trend for functional hearing to have a greater impact on verbal reasoning among those with a higher level of formal education. Among those with poor hearing, hearing aid usage had a significant positive, but not necessarily causal, effect on both numerical and linguistic verbal reasoning (p < 0.005). The estimated effect of hearing aid usage was less than the effect of poor functional hearing. Structural equation modeling analyses confirmed that controlling for education reduced the effect of functional hearing on verbal reasoning and showed that controlling for executive function eliminated the effect. However, when computer usage was controlled for, the eliminating effect of executive function was weakened. CONCLUSIONS: Poor functional hearing was associated with poor verbal reasoning in a 40- to 70-year-old community-dwelling population after controlling for age, gender, and education. The effect of functional hearing on verbal reasoning was significantly reduced among hearing aid users and completely overcome by good executive function skills, which may be enhanced by playing computer games.},
keywords = {aid, hearing, verbal reasoning},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Keidser2015,
title = {On the relationship between functional hearing and depression },
author = {Gitte Keidser, Mark Seeto, Mary Rudner, Staffan Hygge, and Jerker Rönnberg


},
url = {http://informahealthcare.com/eprint/RPskgNxbR7ihm6fUQyAG/full},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-06-12},
journal = {International Journal of Audiology},
keywords = {3572, depression, hearing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Rönnberg2014,
title = {The Effect of Functional Hearing Loss and Age on Long- and Short-term Visuospatial Memory: Evidence from the UK Biobank Resource},
author = {Jerker Rönnberg and Staffan Hygge and Gitte Keidser and Mary Rudner},
url = {http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00326/abstract},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-11-07},
journal = {Frontiers in Aging and Neuroscience},
volume = {6},
pages = {326},
abstract = {The UK Biobank offers cross-sectional epidemiological data collected on > 500 000 individuals in the UK between 40 and 70 years of age. Using the UK Biobank data, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of functional hearing loss and hearing aid usage on visuospatial memory function. This selection of variables resulted in a sub-sample of 138 098 participants after discarding extreme values. A digit triplets functional hearing test was used to divide the participants into three groups: poor, insufficient and normal hearers. We found negative relationships between functional hearing loss and both visuospatial working memory (i.e., a card pair matching task) and visuospatial, episodic long-term memory (i.e., a prospective memory task), with the strongest association for episodic long-term memory. The use of hearing aids showed a small positive effect for working memory performance for the poor hearers, but did not have any influence on episodic long-term memory. Age also showed strong main effects for both memory tasks and interacted with gender and education for the long-term memory task. Broader theoretical implications based on a memory systems approach will be discussed and compared to theoretical alternatives.},
keywords = {hearing, memory, vision},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Moore2014,
title = {Relation between Speech-in-Noise Threshold, Hearing Loss and Cognition from 40–69 Years of Age},
author = {David R. Moore and Mark Edmondson-Jones and Piers Dawes and Heather Fortnum and Abby McCormack and Robert H. Pierzycki and Kevin J. Munro},
url = {http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0107720#pone-0107720-g001},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-09-17},
journal = {PLOS One},
volume = {9},
number = {9},
pages = {e107720},
abstract = {Healthy hearing depends on sensitive ears and adequate brain processing. Essential aspects of both hearing and cognition decline with advancing age, but it is largely unknown how one influences the other. The current standard measure of hearing, the pure-tone audiogram is not very cognitively demanding and does not predict well the most important yet challenging use of hearing, listening to speech in noisy environments. We analysed data from UK Biobank that asked 40–69 year olds about their hearing, and assessed their ability on tests of speech-in-noise hearing and cognition.

Methods and Findings

About half a million volunteers were recruited through NHS registers. Respondents completed ‘whole-body’ testing in purpose-designed, community-based test centres across the UK. Objective hearing (spoken digit recognition in noise) and cognitive (reasoning, memory, processing speed) data were analysed using logistic and multiple regression methods. Speech hearing in noise declined exponentially with age for both sexes from about 50 years, differing from previous audiogram data that showed a more linear decline from <40 years for men, and consistently less hearing loss for women. The decline in speech-in-noise hearing was especially dramatic among those with lower cognitive scores. Decreasing cognitive ability and increasing age were both independently associated with decreasing ability to hear speech-in-noise (0.70 and 0.89 dB, respectively) among the population studied. Men subjectively reported up to 60% higher rates of difficulty hearing than women. Workplace noise history associated with difficulty in both subjective hearing and objective speech hearing in noise. Leisure noise history was associated with subjective, but not with objective difficulty hearing.

Conclusions

Older people have declining cognitive processing ability associated with reduced ability to hear speech in noise, measured by recognition of recorded spoken digits. Subjective reports of hearing difficulty generally show a higher prevalence than objective measures, suggesting that current objective methods could be extended further.},
keywords = {hearing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Tyrrell2014,
title = {Prevalence, Associated Factors, and Comorbid Conditions for Ménière’s Disease},
author = {Tyrrell, Jessica and Whinney, David J. and Ukoumunne, Obioha and Fleming, Lora and Osborne, Nicholas},
url = {http://journals.lww.com/ear-hearing/Citation/2014/07000/Prevalence,_Associated_Factors,_and_Comorbid.18.aspx},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-07-01},
journal = {Ear and Hearing},
volume = {35},
number = {4},
abstract = {Objectives:

The aims of this study were to estimate the prevalence of Ménière’s disease and investigate its relationship with: demographic factors; symptoms and conditions that are known or hypothesized to be associated with Ménière’s disease; other physical diseases; mental health.

Design:

The authors used cross-sectional data from the UK Biobank to compare 1376 self-reported Ménière’s participants with over 500,000 without Ménière’s. The data set has comprehensive anthropometric measures, questionnaire data investigating health, well-being, diet, and medical and drug-prescribing history for each participant. The authors used logistic regression models to investigate the relationship of Ménière’s disease with: demographic factors; symptoms and conditions that are known or hypothesized to be associated with Ménière’s disease; other physical diseases; and mental health.

Results:

Ménière’s disease was more common in participants who were older (adjusted odds ratio per 10-year increase: 1.5 [95% confidence interval:1.4–1.6]), white (odds ratio: 1.7;1.2–2.3), female (1.4;1.3–1.6), and having higher body mass index categories (p < 0.001). The Ménière’s group had greater odds of hearing difficulty (10.9;9.6–12.5), current tinnitus (68.3;47.8–97.5), and had fallen more than once in the last year (2.1;1.8–2.5). Ménière’s participants had greater odds of reporting at least one disease from each grouping of allergic, immune dysfunction, or autonomic dysfunction (2.2;1.8–2.6), and poor mental health (2.1;1.8–2.5).

Conclusions:

This study provides an evidence base that improves understanding of Ménière’s disease. Associations were noted with a number of diseases, and the authors hypothesize a role for the autonomic nervous system and immune system dysfunction in Ménière’s etiology. The study also highlights the physical and mental health correlates of the condition},
keywords = {hearing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Dawes2014b,
title = {Cigarette Smoking, Passive Smoking, Alcohol Consumption, and Hearing Loss},
author = {Piers Dawes and Karen J. Cruickshanks and David R. Moore and Mark Edmondson-Jones and Abby McCormack and Heather Fortnum and Kevin J. Munro},
url = {http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10162-014-0461-0},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-05-28},
journal = {Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology},
volume = {15},
number = {4},
pages = {663-674},
abstract = {The objective of this large population-based cross-sectional study was to evaluate the association between smoking, passive smoking, alcohol consumption, and hearing loss. The study sample was a subset of the UK Biobank Resource, 164,770 adults aged between 40 and 69 years who completed a speech-in-noise hearing test (the Digit Triplet Test). Hearing loss was defined as speech recognition in noise in the better ear poorer than 2 standard deviations below the mean with reference to young normally hearing listeners. In multiple logistic regression controlling for potential confounders, current smokers were more likely to have a hearing loss than non-smokers (odds ratio (OR) 1.15, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.09–1.21). Among non-smokers, those who reported passive exposure to tobacco smoke were more likely to have a hearing loss (OR 1.28, 95 %CI 1.21–1.35). For both smoking and passive smoking, there was evidence of a dose-response effect. Those who consume alcohol were less likely to have a hearing loss than lifetime teetotalers. The association was similar across three levels of consumption by volume of alcohol (lightest 25 %, OR 0.61, 95 %CI 0.57–0.65; middle 50 % OR 0.62, 95 %CI 0.58–0.66; heaviest 25 % OR 0.65, 95 %CI 0.61–0.70). The results suggest that lifestyle factors may moderate the risk of hearing loss. Alcohol consumption was associated with a protective effect. Quitting or reducing smoking and avoiding passive exposure to tobacco smoke may also help prevent or moderate age-related hearing loss},
keywords = {alcohol, hearing, lung, smoking},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Dawes2014,
title = {Hearing in middle age: a population snapshot of 40- to 69-year olds in the United Kingdom},
author = {P Dawes and H Fortnum and DR Moore and R Emsley and P Norman and K Cruickshanks and A Davis and M Edmondson-Jones and A McCormack and M Lutman and K Munro.},
url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24518430},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-05-01},
journal = {Ear Hear},
volume = {35},
number = {3},
pages = {e44-51},
abstract = {OBJECTIVES:
To report population-based prevalence of hearing impairment based on speech recognition in noise testing in a large and inclusive sample of U.K. adults aged 40 to 69 years. The present study is the first to report such data. Prevalence of tinnitus and use of hearing aids is also reported.
DESIGN:
The research was conducted using the UK Biobank resource. The better-ear unaided speech reception threshold was measured adaptively using the Digit Triplet Test (n = 164,770). Self-report data on tinnitus, hearing aid use, noise exposure, as well as demographic variables were collected.
RESULTS:
Overall, 10.7% of adults (95% confidence interval [CI] 10.5-10.9%) had significant hearing impairment. Prevalence of tinnitus was 16.9% (95%CI 16.6-17.1%) and hearing aid use was 2.0% (95%CI 1.9-2.1%). Odds of hearing impairment increased with age, with a history of work- and music-related noise exposure, for lower socioeconomic background and for ethnic minority backgrounds. Males were at no higher risk of hearing impairment than females.
CONCLUSIONS:
Around 1 in 10 adults aged 40 to 69 years have substantial hearing impairment. The reasons for excess risk of hearing impairment particularly for those from low socioeconomic and ethnic minority backgrounds require identification, as this represents a serious health inequality. The underuse of hearing aids has altered little since the 1980s, and is a major cause for concern.},
keywords = {hearing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}