title: Cigarette smoking and risk for hearing impairment: a longitudinal study in Japanese male office workers.
abstract: The association of cigarette smoking with development of hearing impairment (loss of 30 dB at 1000 Hz and 40 dB at 4000 Hz) over a 5-year follow-up was studied in 1554 non-hearing-impaired Japanese male office workers who ranged in age from 30 to 59 years. After controlling for potential predictors of hearing impairment, the relative risk for low-frequency hearing impairment compared with never smokers was 1.12 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.57 to 2.17) for ever-smokers, 1.21 (95% CI, 0.65 to 2.25) for current smokers of 1 to 20 cigarettes/day, 1.35 (95% CI, 0.70 to 2.61) for current smokers of 21 to 30 cigarettes/day, and 1.82 (95% CI, 0.98 to 3.38) for current smokers of 31 or more cigarettes/day (P for trend = 0.063). The respective multivariate-adjusted relative risks for high-frequency hearing impairment compared with never smokers were 1.70 (95% CI, 0.85 to 3.40), 1.82 (95% CI, 0.92 to 3.59), 2.00 (95% CI, 0.98 to 4.08), and 2.20 (95% CI, 1.09 to 4.42) (P for trend = 0.025). As the number of pack-years of exposure increased, the risk for high-frequency hearing impairment increased in a dose-dependent manner (P for trend = 0.011), but the risk for low-frequency hearing impairment did not (P for trend = 0.172). Our results indicate that cigarette smoking is highly associated with development of high-frequency hearing impairment in Japanese male office workers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan. noriyuki@pbhel.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tatara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000886:Anthropometry; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*