Age-related hearing loss and blood pressure

Year : 2006 | Volume : 8 | Issue : 31 | Page : 88-94

Age-related hearing loss and blood pressure

Ulf Rosenhall1, Valter Sundh2

1 Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Section of Technical and Clinical Audiology, Karolinska Institute/ Department of Audiology, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden 2 Department of Geriatric Medicine, Göteborg University Göteborg, Sweden

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Abstract

A review of the literature studying possible correlations between hearing function and cardiovascular disease (CVD) reveals a complex and somewhat contradictory picture. Most studies favor the concept of an association between hearing loss and CVD. The issue of interactions between noise-induced hearing loss and CVD, as well as between age-related hearing loss and CVD, has been discussed in numerous publications. The present study utilizes information from an epidemiological study of elderly people in Gothenburg, Sweden. We found a probable correlation between high systolic blood pressure and hearing loss in the low and mid frequencies in elderly women, 79 years old. A tendency of a similar correlation was also found in a group of 85-year-old women. An association between high diastolic blood pressure and low- and mid-frequency hearing loss was also found in the group of women aged 85 years. No consistent associations between blood pressure or hypertension and auditory function were found in 70- and 75-year-old women or in men 70 to 85 years old.

Keywords: Arterial hypertension, diastolic blood pressure, hearing loss, presbyacusis, systolic blood pressure

http://www.noiseandhealth.org/article.asp?issn=1463-1741;year=2006;volume=8;issue=31;spage=88;epage=94;aulast=Rosenhall