Is loneliness linked to a higher risk of hearing loss?

Authored by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

The News-Medical website reported on a new study done by Chinese researchers who found that loneliness increased the risk of hearing loss. Using data from the UK Biobank, the researchers followed almost 500,000 subjects for 12.3 years. Individuals identifying themselves as lonely on an initial questionnaire had a 24% greater risk of developing hearing loss than non-lonely individuals.

I read the research paper on which the news story is based but I couldn’t find out if those reporting loneliness when they first enrolled in the study already had hearing loss. As best as I can tell, the researchers only looked at “incident hearing loss,” or hearing loss that occurred over the 12.3 years of the study. I couldn’t find any data about the hearing of those reporting being lonely when they first entered the study.

Photo credit:  Stefan Stefancik

That’s an important question. Working on noise issues with the late Bryan Pollard, I learned to ask one important question: “What’s the cause? What’s the effect?” If the lonely subjects already had hearing loss, maybe that’s why they were lonely. Hearing loss is associated with loneliness and if a person already has hearing loss, that tends to increase over time.

That’s why I added a question mark in the title of this blog post. I’m not convinced that loneliness is causally associated with hearing loss. I think the causality runs in the other direction. Regardless, avoiding loneliness, avoiding noise exposure to reduce the risk of hearing loss and treating hearing loss are all good things. And as always, making the world quieter will lead to a better and healthier world for all.