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Hearing loss may be a non‐motor feature of P arkinson's disease in older people in T aiwan
Author(s) -
Lai S.W.,
Liao K.F.,
Lin C.L.,
Lin C.C.,
Sung F.C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
european journal of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.881
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1468-1331
pISSN - 1351-5101
DOI - 10.1111/ene.12378
Subject(s) - medicine , hearing loss , hazard ratio , presbycusis , incidence (geometry) , disease , confounding , audiology , confidence interval , physics , optics
Background and purpose The aim of this study was to explore whether hearing loss is associated with the risk of P arkinson's disease in the elderly in T aiwan. Methods Using claims data of the T aiwan N ational H ealth I nsurance P rogram, 4976 patients (aged 65 years or older) with newly diagnosed hearing loss from 2000 to 2010 were identified and 19 904 subjects without hearing loss were randomly selected as comparisons, frequency matched by sex, age and index year of diagnosing hearing loss. The incidence of P arkinson's disease by the end of 2010 and the associated risk factors were investigated. Results The incidence of P arkinson's disease in the hearing loss group was 1.77‐fold higher than that in the non‐hearing‐loss group (3.11 vs. 1.76 per 1000 person‐years). After controlling for confounding factors, the adjusted hazard ratio ( HR ) of P arkinson's disease was 1.53 (95% CI 1.17, 1.99) for the hearing loss group compared with the non‐hearing‐loss group. Male sex ( HR = 1.33, 95% CI 1.02, 1.74), age (for each year, HR = 1.06, 95% CI 1.04, 1.09), hypertension ( HR = 1.70, 95% CI 1.26, 2.30) and cerebrovascular disease ( HR = 1.78, 95% CI 1.37, 2.32) were also significantly associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease. Conclusions Hearing loss correlates with an increased risk of P arkinson's disease in the elderly. Further studies are needed to confirm whether hearing loss could be a non‐motor feature of P arkinson's disease.