title: Hearing loss may be a non-motor feature of Parkinson's disease in older people in Taiwan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to explore whether hearing loss is associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease in the elderly in Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using claims data of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program, 4976 patients (aged 65 years or older) with newly diagnosed hearing loss from 2000 to 2010 were identified and 19 904 subjects without hearing loss were randomly selected as comparisons, frequency matched by sex, age and index year of diagnosing hearing loss. The incidence of Parkinson's disease by the end of 2010 and the associated risk factors were investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The incidence of Parkinson's disease in the hearing loss group was 1.77-fold higher than that in the non-hearing-loss group (3.11 vs. 1.76 per 1000 person-years). After controlling for confounding factors, the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of Parkinson's disease was 1.53 (95% CI 1.17, 1.99) for the hearing loss group compared with the non-hearing-loss group. Male sex (HR = 1.33, 95% CI 1.02, 1.74), age (for each year, HR = 1.06, 95% CI 1.04, 1.09), hypertension (HR = 1.70, 95% CI 1.26, 2.30) and cerebrovascular disease (HR = 1.78, 95% CI 1.37, 2.32) were also significantly associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hearing loss correlates with an increased risk of Parkinson's disease in the elderly. Further studies are needed to confirm whether hearing loss could be a non-motor feature of Parkinson's disease.
authors: School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Family Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors: S-W
authors: SW
authors: Lai
authors: K-F
authors: KF
authors: Liao
authors: C-L
authors: CL
authors: Lin
authors: C-C
authors: CC
authors: Lin
authors: F-C
authors: FC
authors: Sung
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009313:National Health Programs; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Parkinson's disease; hearing loss; retrospective cohort study; the elderly; universal insurance