Risk of tinnitus in patients with sleep apnea: A nationwide, population-based, case-control study.
To investigate the risk of tinnitus in patients with sleep disturbance or sleep apnea.



Case control study.



We identified 21,798 middle-aged and elderly patients with otolaryngologist-diagnosed tinnitus between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2012, from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. A total of 108,990 controls were also identified from the same database based on frequency-matching on 10-year age interval, sex, and year of index date of the cases. Diagnoses of sleep disturbance (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM] codes 780.50, 780.52, 307.4) and sleep apnea (ICD-9-CM codes 780.51, 780.53, 780.57) in the cases and controls prior to the index date were assessed. The risks of tinnitus in patients with sleep disturbance and sleep apnea were separately evaluated with multivariate logistic regression analyses.



The mean age of the total 130,788 patients was 59.8 years, and 47% of them were males. The risk of tinnitus was higher in patients with sleep disturbance compared to those without the condition (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.13, 95% confidence interval [CI] [95% CI] = 1.11-1.17), and the risk of tinnitus was higher in patients with sleep apnea compared to those without the condition (adjusted OR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.16-1.60).



In this population-based, case-control study, the risk of tinnitus was found to be significantly higher among middle-aged and elderly Taiwanese patients with sleep disturbances, especially with sleep apnea.



3b. Laryngoscope, 127:2171-2175, 2017.
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Department of Medical Research, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Dalin, Chiayi, Taiwan.
Malcolm
M
Koo
Division of Otolaryngology, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Dalin, Chiayi, Taiwan.|Sleep Center, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Dalin, Chiayi, Taiwan.|School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan.
Juen-Haur
JH
Hwang
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000150:complications*; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*
Tinnitus; case control study; sleep apnea; sleep disturbances