Assessment and Modeling of the Influence of Age, Gender, and Family History of Hearing Problems on the Probability of Suffering Hearing Loss in the Working Population

Abstract

Hearing loss affects hundreds of millions of people all over the world, leading to several types of disabilities, ranging from purely physical to psychological and/or social aspects. A proper analysis to ascertain the main risk factors is essential in order to diagnose early and treat adequately. An exploratory analysis based on a heterogeneous sample of 1418 workers is presented in order to identify the main trigger factors for hearing loss. On the one hand, we recorded several medical and environmental parameters, and on the other, we created a model based on Bayesian networks in order to be able to infer the probability of hearing loss considering different scenarios. This paper focuses on three parameters: gender, age, and a family history of hearing problems. The results obtained allow us to infer or predict the best or worst auditory level for an individual under several different scenarios. The least relevant factor is the existence of a family history of deafness, followed by the gender factor, which slopes considerably toward better hearing for females, and most prominent of all, the age factor, given the large differences identified between the various age groups when the gender and family history of deafness variables remain constant.

Hidden Hearing Loss, Cochlear Synaptopathy and Occupational Noise

“…(9) Some authors suggest a better tolerance for hearing damage in young subjects because of greater elasticity of the basilar membrane. Although Barrero et al stated that the opinion is not conclusive, (11) these authors observed that the first symptoms of hearing loss appeared in middle-aged workers, and that there may be related with being close to a noise sources at her/his working place. (11) There are other reports of age related synaptopathy so there may be a possible overlapping of some risk factors proposed in different studies.…”

“…Inheritance seems to be related with hearing loss after noise exposure in older age. (11) (see Table 1). At the same time, other authors mentioned that inner ear damage by noise exposure affects the left ear more frequently than the right one.…”

“…(9) An a possible explanation of this fact was given by Kwon and Lee, (9) who speculate that predominance of hearing loss at the left side was gave by the pro-tective effect of the left olivo-cochlear fasiculi to the right auditory pathway, which may help to explain why in some audiologic tests, such as the middle ear muscle reflex show asymmetric alterations. (11) Prendergast et al measured the interaction among intensity and duration of noise in working environment as the main variables of their research. (12) Summation of time exposed to noise by the worker was the more important variable in the risk of hearing damage (see Table 1).…”

The effect of female hormone in otosclerosis. A comparative study and speculation about their effect on the ossicular chain based on the clinical results

“…Several authors [ 1 , 2 ] have shown that females have better auditory function than men analyzing subjects with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) [ 3 ]. These differences can be related to the effects of female hormones (mainly estrogen) [ 4 ] on the inner ear [ 5 , 6 ] and/or on the auditory system [ 7 , 8 ] at birth.…”