TY - JOUR
T1 - The effects of earphone use and environmental lead exposure on hearing loss in the Korean population
T2 - Data analysis of the Korea national health and nutrition examination survey (KNHANES), 2010-2013
AU - Huh, Da An
AU - Choi, Yun Hee
AU - Moon, Kyong Whan
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by grants from The Korea University (K1508311). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Huh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2016/12
Y1 - 2016/12
N2 - Background: Although previous studies have reported that frequent earphone use and lead exposure are risk factors for hearing loss, most of these studies were limited to small populations or animal experiments. Several studies that presented the joint effect of combined exposure of noise and heavy metal on hearing loss were also mainly conducted on occupational workers exposed to high concentration. Objectives: We investigated both the individual and joint effects of earphone use and environmental lead exposure on hearing loss in the Korean general population. Methods: We analyzed data from 7,596 Koreans provided by the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) during the period 2010-2013. The pure-tone average (PTA) of hearing thresholds at 2, 3, and 4 kHz frequencies was computed, and hearing loss was defined as a PTA ≥ 25 dB in one or both ears. Results: A dose-response relationship in hearing loss with earphone use time and blood lead level is observed after adjustment for confounding factors. With a 1-hour increase in earphone use time and 1 μg/dL increase in blood lead concentration, the odds of hearing loss increased by 1.19 and 1.43 times, respectively. For hearing loss, the additive and multiplicative effect of earphone use and blood lead level were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Earphone use and environmental lead exposure have an individual effect on hearing loss in the general population. However, the estimated joint effect of earphone use and lead exposure was not statistically significant.
AB - Background: Although previous studies have reported that frequent earphone use and lead exposure are risk factors for hearing loss, most of these studies were limited to small populations or animal experiments. Several studies that presented the joint effect of combined exposure of noise and heavy metal on hearing loss were also mainly conducted on occupational workers exposed to high concentration. Objectives: We investigated both the individual and joint effects of earphone use and environmental lead exposure on hearing loss in the Korean general population. Methods: We analyzed data from 7,596 Koreans provided by the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) during the period 2010-2013. The pure-tone average (PTA) of hearing thresholds at 2, 3, and 4 kHz frequencies was computed, and hearing loss was defined as a PTA ≥ 25 dB in one or both ears. Results: A dose-response relationship in hearing loss with earphone use time and blood lead level is observed after adjustment for confounding factors. With a 1-hour increase in earphone use time and 1 μg/dL increase in blood lead concentration, the odds of hearing loss increased by 1.19 and 1.43 times, respectively. For hearing loss, the additive and multiplicative effect of earphone use and blood lead level were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Earphone use and environmental lead exposure have an individual effect on hearing loss in the general population. However, the estimated joint effect of earphone use and lead exposure was not statistically significant.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85007347633&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0168718
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0168718
M3 - Review article
C2 - 28030613
AN - SCOPUS:85007347633
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 11
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
IS - 12
M1 - e0168718
ER -