HIV Infection May Raise Risk of Sudden Hearing Loss

Young HIV positive people age 18 to 35 had more than twice the likelihood of sudden sensorineural hearing loss compared with their HIV negative counterparts, according to an analysis of nearly 9000 people with HIV described in the February 21, 2013, advance online edition of JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

While past research has shown that up to about 40% of people with HIV have chronic hearing loss of one type or another, the incidence of sensorineural hearing loss related to cochlear or nerve damage has not been well studied.

Charlene Lin from the University of California at Berkley, Yung-Song Lin from Taipei Medical University in Taiwan, and colleagues retrospectively evaluated sensorineural hearing loss -- defined as loss of at least 30 decibels of auditory sensitivity -- using medical records from 8760 people with HIV and 43,800 uninfected control subjects in the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Participants were categorized by age, older or younger than 35 years; most (about 90%) were men.

Results

• 16 HIV positive people developed sudden sensorineural hearing lossduring 40,945 person-years of follow-up, compared with 65 cases during 218,292 person-years in the HIV negative group.
• Among participants age 18 to 35 years, the incidence of sudden hearing loss was 2.17-fold higher in the HIV positive group than in the control group (4.32 vs 1.99 per 10,000 person-years; P = 0.03).
• In an adjusted analysis, the hazard ratio for sudden sensorineural hearing loss was 2.169 for the HIV positive group relative to the uninfected group.
• Among men with HIV, the incidence of sudden hearing loss was 2.23-fold higher than that of the control group.
• Among women, the difference between the HIV positive and HIV negative groups did not reach statistical significance.
• The incidence of sudden hearing loss also did not differ significantly between the HIV positive and negative groups for participants age 36 years or older.

Based on these findings, the study authors concluded, "Human immunodeficiency virus infection is significantly associated with an increased risk of developing [sudden sensorineural hearing loss] in patients aged 18 to 35 years, particularly among male patients."

The researchers did not propose a mechanism by which HIV might directly contribute to sensorineural hearing loss.

2/28/13

Reference

C Lin, S-W Lin, S-F Weng and Y-S Lin. Increased Risk of Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Aged 18 to 35 Years: A Population-Based Cohort Study. JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. February 21, 2013 (Epub ahead of print).

Other Source

JAMA. HIV Infection Associated with Increased Risk of Sensorineural Hearing Loss. Press release. February 21, 2013.