Depression, anxiety and brain volume after hearing loss and tinnitus: cohort study in the UK Biobank
Xiaowan Chen,
Kejia Hu,
Huan Song,
Li Yin,
Magnus Kaijser,
Tiril P. Gurholt,
Ole A. Andreassen,
Unnur Valdimarsdóttir,
Fang Fang,
Maoli Duan
Affiliations
Xiaowan Chen
Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China; Unit of Integrative Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery & Audiology and Neurotology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; and Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
West China Biomedical Big Data Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China; Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China; and Centre of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Li Yin
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Magnus Kaijser
Unit of Integrative Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; and Department of Neuroradiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; and Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; and Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Unnur Valdimarsdóttir
Unit of Integrative Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Centre of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland; and Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Fang Fang
Unit of Integrative Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery & Audiology and Neurotology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; and Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Background Hearing loss and tinnitus have been proposed as potential indicators of impaired mental health and brain morphological changes. Aims To assess the associations of hearing loss and tinnitus with the risk of depression and anxiety and with brain volume. Method We conducted a community-based cohort study including 129 610 participants aged 40−69 years at recruitment to the UK Biobank with a follow-up period during 2006–2021 to estimate the risk of depression and anxiety after detection of hearing loss and reported tinnitus. We also assessed the associations of hearing loss and tinnitus with brain volume in a subsample with available brain magnetic resonance imaging data (N = 5222). Results We observed an increased risk of depression among individuals with hearing loss (hazard ratio [HR] 1.14, 95% CI 1.03–1.26), tinnitus (HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.21–1.41) or both (HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.15–1.52), compared with individuals with neither hearing loss nor tinnitus. Similar results were noted for anxiety (HR 1.18, 95% CI 1.07–1.30 for hearing loss; HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.22–1.43 for tinnitus; and HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.30–1.68 for both). Hearing loss was associated with decreased overall brain volume as well as decreased volume of different brain regions. The latter associations disappeared after adjustment for whole intracranial volume. Tinnitus was associated with greater left accumbens and right occipital pole volume after adjustment for the whole intracranial volume. Conclusions Individuals with tinnitus are at increased risk of depression and anxiety. Hearing loss, on the other hand, is associated with both mood disorders and altered brain morphology.
