Aging usually causes various dysfunctions that lower the quality of life. One of such issues might be hearing loss. A long-term cohort study was conducted in order to determine if osteoporosis and low bone density (LBD) are associated with an elevated risk of hearing loss in women. There was also studied whether bisphosphonates (class of drugs that prevent the loss of bone density) affected such risks.
Registered female nurses took part in the long-term study, which consisted of two cohorts: Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II). Participants included 60821 NHS women, aged 36–61 years at baseline, and 83078 NHS II women, aged 31–48 years. Data was obtained from questionaries that were completed by participants every two years over 1982 to 2016 and 1995 to 2017 periods, respectively. The multivariable-adjusted relative risk (MVRR) of moderate or worse hearing loss was measured.
Results from both cohorts confirmed that the risk of age-related hearing loss is higher in women with osteoporosis or LBD comparing to women without these conditions. In NHS, compared with women without osteoporosis, the MVRR was 1.14 among women with osteoporosis; in NHS II, the MVRR was 1.30 among women with osteoporosis/LBD. The study also showed that using bisphosphonates by women with osteoporosis did not reduce elevated risk factors.
Source AGS Journal
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