Association of hearing loss with cardiovascular and mortality risk in the general population

Abstract

Hearing loss affects over 1.5 billion individuals worldwide and is associated with significant challenges, including social isolation and cognitive decline. Emerging evidence suggests a link between hearing loss and cardiovascular diseases. Comprehensive epidemiological studies exploring these associations remain limited. Using data from the Gutenberg Health Study, a population-based cohort of 15,010 participants aged 35–74 years at baseline, we investigated the relationship between hearing loss, cardiovascular diseases and risk factors, and all-cause mortality. Participants underwent extensive audiometric assessments and clinical evaluations. Logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models were applied to determine associations between hearing loss, cardiovascular health, and mortality, adjusting for potential confounders. Among the 8886 participants with complete hearing data, 35.1% exhibited some degree of hearing loss. Crude models revealed significant associations between hearing loss and various cardiovascular diseases and risk factors. However, these associations lost significance after adjustments for confounders, except for diabetes (adjusted odds ratio 1.24, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01–1.51). Hearing loss coincided with higher mortality in unadjusted analyses (hazard ratio 5.64, 95% CI 4.24–7.49), but this relationship disappeared after full adjustment. Hearing loss may serve as an early marker of systemic vascular dysfunction, particularly in diabetes, rather than an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease or mortality. It needs to be determined whether incorporating auditory health into broader cardiovascular assessments could improve early detection and prevention strategies.