Heart failure & cardiomyopathies
Hearing impairment, psychological distress, and incident heart failure: a prospective cohort study
Authors' conclusion
Poor hearing ability is associated with an increased risk of incident HF, with psychological distress playing a notable mediating role. These findings suggest that hearing health and psychological well-being should be considered in cardiovascular risk assessment and prevention strategies.
Study context
- Population
- UK Biobank participants without heart failure (HF) at baselineparticipants without HF at baseline
- Participants
- 164,431 participants
- Exposure
- Speech-in-noise hearing ability and incident HF
- Outcome
- Incident HF
- Follow-up
- Median 11.7 years
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Participants who developed incident HF
4449
2.7%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | Adjusted HR (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|
| Incident HF per SD increment in SRTHigher SRT associated with increased risk | 1.05 (1.02–1.08) | |
| 0.512Adjusted hazard ratio (log scale) |
| Outcome | Adjusted HR |
|---|---|
| Incident HF by hearing categoryInsufficient hearing vs normal hearing | 1.15 |
| Incident HF by hearing categoryPoor hearing vs normal hearing | 1.28 |
| Incident HF by hearing categoryHearing aid use vs normal hearing | 1.26 |
Mediation of the association between speech-reception-threshold (SRT) levels and HF
- Psychological distress mediated
- 16.9%
- Social isolation mediated
- 3.0%
- Neuroticism mediated
- 3.1%
Effect modification
- The association was stronger in participants without coronary heart disease or stroke at baseline
Original publication
Hearing impairment, psychological distress, and incident heart failure: a prospective cohort study. Heart. Published 8 April 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →