Dietary fat intake and risk of disabling hearing impairment: a prospective population-based cohort study

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the associations of specific dietary fats with the risk of disabling hearing impairment in the UK Biobank study.

Methods: This cohort study investigated 105,592 participants (47,308 men and 58,284 women) aged ≥ 40 years. Participants completed a minimum of one valid 24-h recall (Oxford Web-Q). Dietary intake of total fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), saturated fatty acids (SFA), and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) was assessed at baseline. Functional auditory capacity was measured with a digit triplet test (DTT), and disabling hearing impairment was defined as a speech reception threshold in noise > - 3.5 dB in any physical exam performed during the follow-up.

Results: Over a median follow-up of 3.2 (SD: 2.1) years, 832 men and 872 women developed disabling hearing impairment. After adjustment for potential confounders, including lifestyles, exposure to high-intensity sounds, ototoxic medication and comorbidity, the hazard ratios (HRs), and 95% confidence interval (CI) of disabling hearing function, comparing extreme quintiles of intakes were 0.91 (0.71-1.17) for total fat, 1.09 (0.83-1.44) for PUFA, 0.85 (0.64-1.13) for SFA and 1.01 (0.74-1.36) for MUFA among men. Among women, HRs comparing extreme intakes were 0.98 (0.78-1.24) for total fat, 0.69 (0.53-0.91) for PUFA, 1.26 (0.96-1.65) for SFA, and 0.91 (0.68-1.23) for MUFA. Replacing 5% of energy intake from SFA with an equivalent energy from PUFA was associated with 25% risk reduction (HR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.74-0.77) among women.

Conclusions: PUFA intake was associated with decreased risk of disabling hearing function in women, but not in men.

Keywords: Cohort study; Dietary fat intake; Hearing function; UK Biobank.