Table 2.
Baseline Characteristics of Participants at Risk for Incident Tinnitus, by Follow-up Status.
| Characteristic | Percentage with Characteristic | p-value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participated (n = 2922)1 | Did Not Participate (n = 114)2 | Deceased (n = 349)3 | Unadjusted | Age- adjusted | |
| History of ever smoking | 52.1 | 62.6 | 66.0 | < .0001 | < .0001 |
| Hypertension present | 49.8 | 43.3 | 63.6 | < .0001 | .0394 |
| Any loud hobbies (past year) | 49.7 | 52.6 | 40.4 | .0031 | .33 |
| Arthritis present | 45.8 | 30.8 | 46.9 | .0154 | .0212 |
| Obese | 41.8 | 50.0 | 38.2 | .14 | .39 |
| Hearing loss present | 41.3 | 36.3 | 63.9 | < .0001 | .0006 |
| Male | 40.7 | 43.9 | 53.6 | < .0001 | < .0001 |
| History of head injury | 29.8 | 21.9 | 27.2 | .13 | .09 |
| Regular aspirin use | 27.5 | 24.2 | 33.1 | .07 | .84 |
| History of heavy drinking | 14.8 | 24.2 | 27.6 | < .0001 | < .0001 |
| History of cardiovascular disease | 12.2 | 7.7 | 31.1 | < .0001 | < .0001 |
| Gunfire exposure in past year | 9.5 | 10.5 | 8.6 | .79 | .47 |
| Loud job in past year | 8.2 | 6.1 | 7.5 | .69 | .0325 |
| History of otosclerosis | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | .53 | .52 |
| Mean | p-value | ||||
| Age (years) | 65.2 | 60.6 | 70.8 | < .0001 | -- |
| Ethanol consumption (g/wk) | 43.1 | 41.5 | 53.5 | .17 | .0047 |
| Serum non-HDL cholesterol (mg/dL) | 187.2 | 191.4 | 178.4 | .0042 | .0017 |
| Serum total cholesterol (mg/dL) | 240.0 | 243.4 | 226.6 | < .0001 | < .0001 |
1
Those who participated in any of the four follow-up studies. Excludes 44 participants who did not provide sufficient information to classify tinnitus status upon follow-up.
2
Those without follow-up, but living at the end of the follow-up period.
3
Those without follow-up who had died by the end of the follow-up period.