Hearing loss is also one of the harmful effects of smoking.

Japanese researchers confirm that smoking has a negative impact on hearing and that the risk of hearing loss changes according to the number of cigarettes smoked. The results of this study also conclude that the phenomenon is reversible and thus support the relevance of recommendations in favor of smoking cessation.

The association between smoking and hearing loss has been a question that has been animating the scientific community for several decades. In June 1998, based on a sample of 3,753 individuals, a study estimated the increased risk for smokers to lose hearing at 1.69 compared to non-smokers.[1]In 2014, researchers from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom supported these conclusions after observing the hearing of 164,770 adults aged 40 to 69.[2]The latest study, conducted by researchers from the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Japan, looked at a sample of 50,195 working adults aged 20 to 64 over a period of up to 8 years.[3]This 2018 study uses data collected during hearing exams performed as part of annual professional medical visits and shows that the risk of hearing loss is:

- 1.4 times higher among smokers consuming between 1 and 10 cigarettes per day; - 1.5 times higher for consumption between 11 and 20 cigarettes per day; - 1.7 times higher for consumption above 20 cigarettes per day[4].

Causes

Clearly, it is not the existence of the link between smoking and hearing loss that remains a mystery to the scientific community, but rather the process. Several leads still need to be refined to determine whether it is poorer oxygenation of the cochlea or a disruption in the role of neurotransmitters transporting sensory information along the auditory nerve that is the cause.[5]However, it is clear that in both cases, it is nicotine that is involved.

A harmful effect of smoking that is nevertheless reversible… and avoidable!

After analyzing hearing loss as a function of time following smoking cessation, Japanese researchers reveal that this phenomenon is not irreversible. The risk of hearing loss actually decreases over the 5 years after completely stopping smoking. Let us recall here that the exposure of children to passive smoking is responsible for neurosensory hearing loss and thus constitutes a risk factor in childhood hearing loss.[6].

©Tobacco Free Generation

[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/187596#top

[2] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140606091541.htm

[3] https://academic.oup.com/ntr/article-abstract/21/4/481/4925604?redirectedFrom=fulltext

[4] https://sciencepost.fr/le-tabagisme-sattaquerait-egalement-a-laudition/

[5] https://www.agxhearing.com/2014/06/30/relationship-smoking-hearing-loss/

[6] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24246243/

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