Associations Between Telomere Length and Hearing Status in Mid-Childhood and Midlife: Population-Based Cross-Sectional study

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to determine if telomere length (a biomarker of aging) is associated with hearing acuity in mid-childhood and midlife. Design: The study was based on the population-based cross-sectional study within the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children with telomere length and audiometry data. We calculated high Fletcher Index (hFI, mean threshold of 1, 2, and 4 kHz), defining hearing loss as threshold >15 dB HL (better ear). Linear and logistic regression analyses quantified associations of telomere length with continuous hearing threshold and binary hearing loss outcomes, respectively. Results: One thousand one hundred ninety-five children (mean age 11.4 years, SD 0.5) and 1334 parents (mean age 43.9 years, SD 5.1) were included in analyses. Mean (SD) telomere length (T/S ratio) was 1.09 (0.55) for children and 0.81 (0.38) for adults; hFI (dB HL) was 8.0 (5.6) for children and 13.1 (7.0) for adults, with 8.4% and 25.9%, respectively, showing hearing loss.Telomere length was not associated with hearing threshold or hearing loss in children (hFI: OR, 0.99; 95% confidence interval, 0.55 to 1.78) or adults (hFI: OR, 1.35; 95% confidence interval, 0.81 to 2.25). Conclusions: Telomere length was not associated with hearing acuity in children or their midlife parents.

Association between Leucocyte Telomere Length and Risk of Hearing Loss in the General Population: A Case-Control Study in Zhejiang Province, China

“…Differences in the research objectives, definitions of hearing loss, and study design and methods may be the reasons for inconsistencies between the results of different studies. We further examined the different degrees of hearing loss by being sex-specific, especially for mild hearing loss (similar to that reported by Wang et al [16]), to identify the early associations between telomere length and lifetime risk of hearing loss. From our results (Figure 1), we believe that the reason for the inconsistencies in previous studies may be the differences in the proportions of populations with different degrees of hearing loss in these studies.…”

“…In particular, for the study of hearing loss and telomere length, three cross-sectional studies have assessed the association between RTL and the risk of hearing loss; two studies reported an inverse association [15,17], whereas one study reported null findings [16]. Differences in the research objectives, definitions of hearing loss, and study design and methods may be the reasons for inconsistencies between the results of different studies.…”

“…Second, the RTL measured in peripheral blood cells may not accurately reflect the ongoing cellular aging in different tissues [7,9], and thus, the associations between hearing loss and RTL in the ear tissue might be stronger than those found in this study. Third, air-conduction audiometry was used in our study; although bone-conduction audiometry would have more accurately classified cases of sensorineural and conductive hearing loss, assessing these factors is rarely feasible in population studies [16].…”

“…However, limited evidence exists in domestic and foreign databases [15][16][17] that directly examines the relationship between hearing loss and telomere length, and moreover, the available literature has certain limitations. For example, these investigations include either specific populations (specific occupational workers or elderly adults) or specific types of hearing loss (presbycusis or sudden sensorineural hearing loss); additionally, the results reported are inconsistent.…”

Exploring the Association of Leukocyte Telomere Length and Hearing Threshold Shifts of Adults in the United States

“…To date, the results of studies on the relationship between telomere length and hearing level are quite limited and inconsistent Wang et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2020). One study showed that longer telomere length was negatively related to hearing loss in older adults .…”