The effects of weather on the incidence of sudden sensorineural hearing loss: a 5-year population-based study.
OBJECTIVE
This study utilizes 5-year population data to examine the association between weather conditions and the incidence of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) in Taiwan with a specific focus on ambient temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, rainfall and total hours of sunshine.


METHODS
The data, covering the period from 1998 to 2002, is sourced from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), with a total of 8712 first-time admissions being identified from the database by a principal diagnosis of unspecified sudden hearing loss (ICD-9-CM code 3882). After controlling for time trend effects, this study adopted the autoregressive integrated moving average regression method as a means of evaluating the effects of climatic and monthly factors on SSNHL incidence rates.


RESULTS
Although significant associations were found between ambient temperature, relative humidity and the SSNHL incidence rates for the total population, after adjusting for seasonality, months and trends, the significant relationship between SSNHL incidence rates and the climatic parameters disappeared.


CONCLUSIONS
This study has demonstrated that after adjusting for seasonality, months and trends, there is no significant relationship between monthly SSNHL incidence rates and weather conditions. Therefore, the theory that weather is a triggering factor in SSNHL pathogenesis is not supported by this study.
Lin
Herng-Ching
HC
School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, and Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taiwan. henry11111@tmu.edu.tw
Lee
Hsin-Chien
HC
Chao
Pin-Zhir
PZ
Wu
Chuan-Song
CS
D000328:Adult; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D003639:Hearing Loss, Sudden / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012621:Seasons; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D013696:Temperature; D014887:Weather