PLoS ONE (Jan 2020)

Risk of hearing loss in patients with fibromyalgia: A nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study.

  • Thi Phuong Le,
  • Ya-Ling Tzeng,
  • Chih-Hsin Muo,
  • Hua Ting,
  • Fung-Chang Sung,
  • Shin-Da Lee,
  • Yu-Kuei Teng

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238502
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 9
p. e0238502

Abstract

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ObjectivesOur objectives are to examine whether patients with fibromyalgia (FM) present an increased risk of hearing loss (HL) compared with those without FM and to explore the relationship between comorbidities/drugs and development of HL in patients with FM. Furthermore, we investigated the incidence rate of different types of HL and the joint effects for HL with FM and comorbidities.MethodsThis population-based retrospective cohort study included patients with new-onset FM from 2000 to 2002 (the FM group) and age- and sex-matched randomized patients without FM (the non-FM group) from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. Patients were followed up from baseline (3 months after FM diagnosis) until death, withdrawal, HL development, or December 31, 2013. The primary outcome was the risk of HL, which was assessed using Cox proportional-hazards analysis.ResultsThe overall HL risk in the FM group was 1.46-fold (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.38-1.55) higher than that in the non-FM group after adjustment for sex, age, and comorbidities (p ConclusionOur findings support the notion that FM influences HL and is in line with the hypothesis that the FM mechanism is related to a central nervous system abnormality in sensory processing. Health care professionals should provide appropriate screening for the risk of HL and prevention and counseling methods for patients with FM.