Tinnitus Is Associated with a Higher Risk of Benign Brain Tumors: A Nationwide, Population-Based Secondary Cohort Study of Young and Middle-Aged Adults

Abstract

Background: It remains unclear whether tinnitus is associated with a higher risk of benign or malignant brain tumors in humans. Therefore, the aim of this secondary study was to investigate the risk of brain tumors in adult with tinnitus using data from a nationwide health claims research database. Methods: Patients aged 20–50 years who were newly diagnosed with tinnitus were identified from the Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database and they served as the study cohort. A comparison cohort was formed by using patients without tinnitus from the same database with frequency matching (4: 1) by 10-year age interval and gender to the patients in the tinnitus cohort. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate the adjusted hazard ratios (AHR) for benign and malignant brain tumors in patients with tinnitus, adjusting for age, gender, and comorbidities. Results: There were 15,819 patients in the tinnitus cohort and 63,276 in the comparison cohort. A significantly higher proportion of patients with tinnitus had benign brain tumor (p = 0.003) and all 11 comorbid conditions (p < 0.001) compared to those without tinnitus. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis performed on the basis of age, gender, and the 11 comorbidities revealed that tinnitus was independently associated with a higher risk for benign brain tumor (AHR 1.65, 95% CI 1.24–2.20, p = 0.001) and but not with malignant brain tumors (AHR 1.66, 95% CI 0.93–2.94, p = 0.085). Conclusions: Findings from this secondary cohort analysis indicated that tinnitus is associated with a higher risk of benign brain tumors.

Association of periodic limb movements during sleep and tinnitus in humans

“…2-4 . And, tinnitus often comorbided with other diseases, such as anxiety, depression, brain tumors or stroke, and some symptoms including irritability, inability to concentration, and sleep disturbances [5][6][7] .…”

“…2-4 . And, tinnitus often comorbided with other diseases, such as anxiety, depression, brain tumors or stroke, and some symptoms including irritability, inability to concentration, and sleep disturbances [5][6][7] .Dysfunction in the cochlea, and neural reorganization in the auditory and non-auditory cortices have been reported to be associated with auditory tinnitus 8 . In addition to neuroinflammation and/or oxidative stress damages 9-13 , increased expression of N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor (NR) gene 14 , decreasedγ-amino butyric acid (GABA) receptor (GR) and cannabinoid receptor genes were found in the cochlea and some brain areas 9,15 .…”