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Iron Deficiency Anemia and Hearing Loss

JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg; ePub 2016 Dec 29; Schieffer, et al

Publish date:: January 4, 2017

Iron deficiency anemia was linked with hearing loss in a retrospective cohort study involving more than 305,000 individuals.

Investigators looked at low hemoglobin and ferritin levels and their link to hearing loss in participants seen at a single center over a 5-year period ending in 2015. Among the results:

~133,000 of the participants were men; average age was ~50.
1.6% had combined hearing loss, and 0.7% had iron deficiency anemia.
Patients with sensorineural hearing loss were nearly twice as likely to have IDA.
Those with combined hearing loss were more than twice as likely to have such.

Citation:

Schieffer K, Chuang C, Connor J, et al. Association of iron deficiency anemia with hearing loss in US adults. [Published online ahead of print December 29, 2016]. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2016.3631.

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