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- A study conducted from the UK BIOBANK biomedical database shows that a drop in hearing is an independent factor of Parkinson’s disease in the 14 years.
- The risk is increased by 57 % for each elevation of 10 dB of the intelligibility threshold of audio messages in noise.
- These results strengthen the hypothesis that hearing loss is a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease, both possibly associated with a common neurological cause.
In the elderly, the hearing loss was clearly associated with cognitive decline. She is also suspected of being a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease. However, this last point is still debated. In order to bring new elements to this discussion, an English team has taken hold of the issue and evaluated the impact of an elevation of the intelligibility threshold of audio messages in noise on the incidence of the disease during an observation period over 14 years.
The subjects having developed a Parkinson disease had a lower hearing threshold for inclusion
The data of 159,395 subjects were extracted from the UK BioBank biomedical database. They had passed a hearing test (Digit Triplet Test) and had no signs of Parkinson’s disease to inclusion. During the follow-up period, 810 of them developed a probable parkinson disease, according to the ICD-10.
The subjects who did not declare a parkinson disease had an intelligibility threshold of audio message in the noise (threshold for which the user includes 50 % of audio messages in a noisy environment) in inclusion (-6.17 db on average, type 1.45) compared to those who had developed the disease (-5.75 db [1,65]p <0.001). This means that subjects to develop the disease later had a less good hearing in inclusion.
The risk of Parkinson’s disease increases with the hearing loss level
After adjusting sex, age and level of education, each elevation of 10 dB of the intelligibility threshold in noise was associated with an increase of 57 % of the risk of developing a parkinson disease (hazard ratio of 1.57 [1,018-2,435]p = 0,041).
However, when the results in Digit Triplet Test indicated a hearing ” weak »Or« insufficient According to standards of the UK Biobank database, the risk of Parkinson’s disease was not significantly increased compared to the absence of hearing loss.