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TOPLINE:

Difficulty distinguishing spoken words from background noise, called speech-in-noise hearing impairment, was associated with increased risk for Parkinson's disease (PD), with a 57% elevation in risk per 10 dB increase in the speech reception threshold (SRT), a new study showed.

METHODOLOGY:

• In the preregistered prospective cohort study, investigators analyzed data for more than 159,000 UK Biobank participants who were free from PD at baseline. Median follow-up duration was 14.2 years.
• The analysis considered age, sex, and educational attainment as additional covariates.
• The Digit Triplet Test was used to assess for impairment in speech-in-noise hearing.
• SRT refers to the level at which half of the presented speech can be understood correctly.

TAKEAWAY:

• A total of 810 participants were identified with incident PD during follow-up (incidence rate, 5%).
• Compared with control individuals, participants who developed PD were more likely to be older, men, and less educated (all, P < .001).
• Baseline speech-in-noise hearing impairment was independently associated with risk for incident PD (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.57; P = .04), with a 57% excess risk per 10 dB increase in SRT.
• When hearing impairment was categorized on the basis of UK Biobank SRT norms, "insufficient" and "poor" hearing vs "normal" hearing did not significantly increase the risk for incident PD.

IN PRACTICE:

"If hearing loss is intricately related to Parkinson's, it may be beneficial for auditory functioning and the management of auditory impairment to be considered at the time of diagnosis and follow-up care, " the investigators wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Megan Rose Readman, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, England. It was published in the February issue of Parkinsonism & Related Disorders.

LIMITATIONS:

The study's voluntary recruitment strategy resulted in a sample with more women than men, potentially affecting generalizability because both PD and hearing impairment are typically more prevalent in men. Geographic diversity was limited as the study analyzed only UK Biobank data. Additionally, some participants initially diagnosed with PD but having other parkinsonism conditions may have been included, as clinical evaluations were not given to confirm their diagnosis.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Some of the investigators reported having employment and financial ties with various sources. Details are fully listed in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.