Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Mar 26;22(1):141.
doi: 10.1186/s12916-024-03364-5.

Association between genetic risk and adherence to healthy lifestyle for developing age-related hearing loss

Sang-Hyuk Jung #  1 , Young Chan Lee #  1   2 , Manu Shivakumar  1 , Jaeyoung Kim  3 , Jae-Seung Yun  4 , Woong-Yang Park  5 , Hong-Hee Won  3   5 ; Penn Medicine Biobank; Dokyoon Kim  6   7
Affiliations

Association between genetic risk and adherence to healthy lifestyle for developing age-related hearing loss

Sang-Hyuk Jung et al. BMC Med. .

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have shown that lifestyle/environmental factors could accelerate the development of age-related hearing loss (ARHL). However, there has not yet been a study investigating the joint association among genetics, lifestyle/environmental factors, and adherence to healthy lifestyle for risk of ARHL. We aimed to assess the association between ARHL genetic variants, lifestyle/environmental factors, and adherence to healthy lifestyle as pertains to risk of ARHL.

Methods: This case-control study included 376,464 European individuals aged 40 to 69 years, enrolled between 2006 and 2010 in the UK Biobank (UKBB). As a replication set, we also included a total of 26,523 individuals considered of European ancestry and 9834 individuals considered of African-American ancestry through the Penn Medicine Biobank (PMBB). The polygenic risk score (PRS) for ARHL was derived from a sensorineural hearing loss genome-wide association study from the FinnGen Consortium and categorized as low, intermediate, high, and very high. We selected lifestyle/environmental factors that have been previously studied in association with hearing loss. A composite healthy lifestyle score was determined using seven selected lifestyle behaviors and one environmental factor.

Results: Of the 376,464 participants, 87,066 (23.1%) cases belonged to the ARHL group, and 289,398 (76.9%) individuals comprised the control group in the UKBB. A very high PRS for ARHL had a 49% higher risk of ARHL than those with low PRS (adjusted OR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.36-1.62; P < .001), which was replicated in the PMBB cohort. A very poor lifestyle was also associated with risk of ARHL (adjusted OR, 3.03; 95% CI, 2.75-3.35; P < .001). These risk factors showed joint effects with the risk of ARHL. Conversely, adherence to healthy lifestyle in relation to hearing mostly attenuated the risk of ARHL even in individuals with very high PRS (adjusted OR, 0.21; 95% CI, 0.09-0.52; P < .001).

Conclusions: Our findings of this study demonstrated a significant joint association between genetic and lifestyle factors regarding ARHL. In addition, our analysis suggested that lifestyle adherence in individuals with high genetic risk could reduce the risk of ARHL.

Keywords: Age-related hearing loss; Environmental factor; Genetic risk; Lifestyle; Polygenic risk score.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Odds ratio for ARHL according to genetic risk, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Model was adjusted by age, sex, genotype array, and PC 1 to 10. P for trends were significant in all analyses (P < .001). Abbreviations: ARHL, age-related hearing loss; OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Forest plot for ARHL risk reduced by composite healthy lifestyle score in each genetic risk group. Model was adjusted by age, sex, genotype array, and PC 1 to 10. Abbreviations: ARHL, age-related hearing loss; OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bowl MR, Dawson SJ. Age-Related Hearing Loss. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2019;8(9):a033217. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Organization WH. World report on hearing. World Health Organization; 2021.
    1. Gates GA, Mills JH. Presbycusis. Lancet. 2005;366:1111–1120. - PubMed
    1. Perez P, Bao J. Why do hair cells and spiral ganglion neurons in the cochlea die during aging? Aging Dis. 2011;2:231. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dalton DS, Cruickshanks KJ, Klein BE, Klein R, Wiley TL, Nondahl DM. The impact of hearing loss on quality of life in older adults. Gerontologist. 2003;43:661–668. - PubMed

Publication types