Hearing impairment increases the risk of distal radius, hip, and spine fractures: A longitudinal follow-up study using a national sample cohort

So Young Kim; Joon Kyu Lee; Songyong Sim; Hyo Geun Choi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0192820

Hearing impairment increases the risk of distal radius, hip, and spine fractures: A longitudinal follow-up study using a national sample cohort

PLoS One. 2018 Feb 13;13(2):e0192820. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192820. eCollection 2018.

Authors

So Young Kim¹, Joon Kyu Lee², Songyong Sim³, Hyo Geun Choi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, CHA Bundang Medical Center, CHA University, Seongnam, Korea.
² Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea.
³ Department of Statistics, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea.
⁴ Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea.

Abstract

Objective: Hearing impairment has been suggested to increase the risk of falls. However, most previous studies were conducted in an older population without classification of the fracture regions. This study aimed to delineate the risk of each fracture type in all age populations.

Methods: The Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort was collected from 2002 to 2013. A total of 4,854 severe hearing-impaired and 1,354 profound hearing-impaired participants were matched for age, group, sex, income group, and region of residence with 19,416 and 5,416 control participants, respectively. The fracture diagnosis was based on the International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) codes as follows: distal radius fracture (S525), hip fracture (S720, S721, S722), and spine fracture (S220, S32). Crude (simple) and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for each fracture associated with severe or profound hearing impairment were analyzed using the Cox proportional hazard model.

Results: The severe hearing-impaired group had an increased risk of distal radius fracture, hip fracture, and spine fracture compared with the control group (adjusted HR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.38-2.03, P < 0.001 for hip fracture). The profound hearing-impaired group had an increased risk of hip and spine fracture (adjusted HR = 2.21, 95% CI = 1.44-3.39, P < 0.001 for hip fracture).

Conclusion: The risk of distal radius fracture, hip fracture, and spine fracture was increased in the severe hearing-impaired group compared with the control group.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Accidental Falls
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Child
Child, Preschool
Cohort Studies
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Fractures, Bone / epidemiology
Fractures, Bone / etiology*
Hearing Loss / complications*
Hearing Loss / physiopathology
Hearing Loss / psychology
Hip Fractures / epidemiology
Hip Fractures / etiology
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Middle Aged
Proportional Hazards Models
Radius Fractures / epidemiology
Radius Fractures / etiology
Republic of Korea / epidemiology
Risk Factors
Spinal Fractures / epidemiology
Spinal Fractures / etiology
Young Adult

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea grant (NRF-2015-R1D1A1A01060860) and the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) & funded by the Korean government (MSIP&MOHW) (2016M3A9E8941669). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.