Smoking being linked to risk of hearing loss

The dangers of smoking are wellknown but here is one you may not have heard of – deafness.

Smoking is linked to an increased risk of hearing loss, says research published by Oxford University Press which studied 50,000 participants for eight years.

The Japanese researchers analysed data from annual health check-ups, which saw hearing tests performed and a healthy lifestyle questionnaire completed by each participant.

They examined the effects of smoking (current, former and those who’ve never smoked), the number of cigarettes smoked per day, and how long a person had been a non-smoker on the extent of hearing loss.

Even after adjusting for factors including occupational noise exposure, researchers noted a 1.2 to 1.6% increased risk of hearing loss among current smokers compared with people who had never smoked.

While the association between smoking and high-frequency hearing loss was stronger than that of low-frequency hearing loss, the risk of both increased with cigarette consumption.

The good news is the increased risk of hearing loss dropped within five years of quitting smoking.

The study’s lead author, Dr Huanhuan Hu of Japan’s National Centre for Global Health and Medicine, said: “With a large sample size and long follow-up period this provides strong evidence smoking is a risk factor of hearing loss.”