Table 3. Sociodemographic and Clinical Variables Among 1929 Participants With and Without Different Age-Related Hearing Loss Subtypes in the Salus in Apulia Studya.
| Variable | Individuals with peripheral ARHL (n = 425) | Individuals with age-related CAPD (n = 281) | Individuals without disabling ARHL (n = 1223) | Effect size (95% CI)b | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peripheral ARHL vs without disabling ARHL | Age-related CAPD vs without disabling ARHL | ||||
| Sociodemographic | |||||
| Age, y | 77 (65 to 95) | 76 (66 to 95) | 71 (65 to 90) | 5 (4 to 6) | 4 (3 to 5) |
| Female | 229 (53.9) | 141 (50.2) | 585 (47.8) | −6.05 (−11.55 to −0.54) | −2.34 (−8.83 to 4.14) |
| Educational level, y | 5 (0 to 23) | 5 (0 to 18) | 6 (0 to 18) | −1 (−1 to 0) | −1 (−2 to 0) |
| Smoked | 26 (6.1) | 15 (5.3) | 110 (9.0) | −2.88 (−5.66 to −0.09) | −3.66 (−6.73 to −0.58) |
| BMI | 28.2 (17.4 to 47.6) | 28.8 (19.1 to 48.8) | 27.8 (14.1 to 52.4) | 0.12 (−0.41 to 0.60) | 0.76 (0.05 to 1.42) |
| MMSE score | 26 (5 to 30) | 25 (1 to 30) | 28 (2 to 30) | −2 (−2 to −1) | −2 (−3 to −2) |
| Hearing measurement | |||||
| PTA, dB HL | 50.0 (40.0 to 107.5) | 32.5 (17.5 to 77.5) | 25.0 (12.5 to 60.0) | 25.0 (25.0 to 25.0) | 7.5 (5.0 to 7.5) |
| PTA HF, dB HL | 80.0 (20.0 to 120.0) | 67.5 (22.5 to 122.5) | 50.0 (15.0 to 110.0) | 30.0 (27.5 to 30.8) | 15.0 (12.0 to 17.0) |
| SDS | 80 (0 to 145) | 90 (0 to 100) | 100 (30 to 100) | −15 (−15 to −15) | −5 (−10 to −5) |
| SSI-ICM score | 20 (0 to 100) | 25 (0 to 70) | 90 (50 to 100) | −60 (−65 to −55) | −60 (−65 to −60) |
| Metabolic biomarker | |||||
| FBG level, mg/dL | 100 (73 to 435) | 100 (70 to 349) | 99 (54 to 355) | 2 (0 to 3) | 1 (−1 to 3) |
| Diabetes | 69 (16.2) | 47 (16.7) | 129 (10.5) | 5.69 (1.78 to 9.59) | 6.18 (1.49 to 10.87) |
| Total cholesterol level, mg/dL | 181 (95 to 287) | 175 (76 to 386) | 185 (20 to 386) | −5 (−9 to −1) | −10 (−15 to −5) |
| HDL-C level, mg/dL | 45 (23 to 495) | 46 (21 to 265) | 47 (22 to 106) | −2 (−3 to 0) | −1 (−3 to 0) |
| LDL-C level, mg/dL | 111 (14 to 213) | 105 (28 to 195) | 114 (30 to 220) | −4 (−7 to 0) | −10 (−14 to −5) |
| Triglyceride levels, mg/dL | 95 (21 to 483) | 86 (6 to 270) | 93 (23 to 773) | 0 (−5 to 5) | −4 (−10 to 1) |
| SBP, mm Hg | 130 (100 to 180) | 130 (100 to 180) | 130 (80 to 200) | 0 | 0 |
| DBP, mm Hg | 80 (40 to 110) | 80 (60 to 140) | 80 (50 to 100) | 0 | 0 |
| Clinical | |||||
| Hypertension | 346 (81.4) | 237 (84.3) | 1052 (86.0) | −4.61 (−8.78 to −0.43) | −1.68 (−6.35 to 3.00) |
| Myocardial infarction | 18 (4.7) | 15 (6.4) | 55 (5.0) | −0.30 (−2.80 to 2.20) | 1.40 (−2.01 to 4.80) |
| Stroke | 10 (2.6) | 11 (4.7) | 20 (1.8) | 0.80 (−0.99 to 2.60) | 2.89 (0.05 to 5.73) |
| Weakness | 136 (32.0) | 92 (32.7) | 378 (30.9) | 1.09 (−4.04 to 6.23) | 1.83 (−4.23 to 7.90) |
| Exhaustion | 63 (14.3) | 31 (11.0) | 134 (11.0) | 3.87 (0.06 to 7.67) | 0.08 (−3.98 to 4.14) |
| Slowness | 123 (28.9) | 77 (27.4) | 294 (24.0) | 4.90 (−0.03 to 9.83) | 3.36 (−2.38 to 9.10) |
| Weight loss | 32 (7.5) | 23 (8.2) | 74 (6.1) | 1.10 (−1.68 to 3.87) | 2.13 (−1.34 to 5.61) |
| Low physical activity | 360 (84.7) | 243 (86.5) | 996 (81.4) | 3.27 (−0.79 to 7.32) | 5.04 (0.48 to 9.59) |
| Physical frailty | 62 (22.1) | 96 (22.6) | 203 (16.6) | 5.99 (1.50 to 10.48) | 5.47 (0.19 to 10.74) |
| Cognitive frailty | 25 (5.9) | 17 (6.0) | 36 (2.9) | 6.55 (3.62 to 9.48) | 7.10 (3.48 to 10.73) |
Abbreviations: ARHL, age-related hearing loss; BMI, body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared); CAPD, central auditory processing disorder; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; FBG, fasting blood glucose; HDL-C, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; LDL-C, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination; PTA, pure tone average; PTA HF, PTA high frequencies; SBP, systolic blood pressure; SDS, Speech Discrimination Score; SSI-ICM, Synthetic Sentence Identification With Ipsilateral Competitive Message.
SI conversion factors: to convert glucose to millimoles per liter, multiply by 0.0555; total cholesterol, HDL-C, and LDL-C to millimoles per liter, multiply by 0.0259; and triglycerides to millimoles per liter, multiply by 0.0113.
Data are presented as median (interquartile range) for continuous variables and as number (percentage) for categorical variables. The Salus in Apulia Study is reported in Sardone et al.17
For continuous variables, effect size is the median of the difference of medians between the groups, and the 95% CI around that difference was calculated using the method of Altman et al.35 For categorical variables, effect size is considered as the difference between proportions of the groups with relative 95% CIs calculated around that difference.