Korean J Community Nutr.  2020 Dec;25(6):512-519. 10.5720/kjcn.2020.25.6.512.

Vegetable and Nut Food Groups are Inversely Associated with Hearing Loss- a Cross-sectional Study from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

• Lee S
• Lee JY

• KMID: 2510502
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2020.25.6.512

Abstract

Objectives
A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the associations between food groups and hearing loss.
Methods
Data of 1,312 individuals were used from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013. Hearing loss was determined with a pure tone average (PTA) of greater than 25 dB in either ear. The PTA was measured as the average hearing threshold at speech frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz. The dietary intake was examined with a food frequency questionnaire with 112 food items. The food items were classified into 25 food groups. A weighted logistic regression was used to investigate the association.
Results
Individuals in the highest tertile of vegetables and nuts food groups were less likely to have hearing loss than those in the lowest tertile [Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.58 (95% Confidence interval (CI) 0.38-0.91), P = 0.019; OR = 0.59 (95% CI 0.39-0.90), P = 0.020, respectively], after adjusting for confounding variables of age, sex, body mass index, drinking, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, and physical activity.
Conclusions
In this cross-sectional study, we observed that high intake of vegetables and nuts food groups revealed significant inverse associations with hearing loss, after adjusting for confounding variables among 1,312 participants.

Keyword

Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; hearing loss; food groups; vegetables; nuts