Current smokers have 15.1% higher odds of getting hearing loss than non-smokers, according to a new study by The University of Manchester, UK. Passive smoking also increased the likelihood of hearing loss by 28%. Ex-smokers had a slightly reduced risk of going deaf, which may be because once they quit they adopt a more healthy life style overall.

Researchers looked at 164,77 UK adults aged 40 to 69 years of age who took hearing tests between 2007 and 2010 when they joined UK Biobank, a national project to improve health. Piers Dawes, PhD, from the Centre for Human Communication and Deafness at The University of Manchester who led the research, says, “Given around 20% of the UK population smoke, and up to 60% in some countries, smoking may represent a significant cause of hearing loss worldwide. We found the more packets you smoke per week and the longer you smoke, the greater the risk you will damage your hearing.”

The link between smoking and hearing loss is still unclear but many smokers also often had heart disease. “We are not sure if toxins in tobacco smoke affect hearing directly, or whether smoking-related cardiovascular disease causes microvascular changes that impact hearing, or both,” adds Dr Dawes.

The increased risk among passive smokers, which is higher than that for smokers, could be because smokers were compared to both complete non-smokers and passive non-smokers, but passive smokers were only compared to non-smokers. This means the association with smoking and hearing loss maybe under estimated, the researchers say.

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