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Epidemiology and Population Health

How body composition influences hearing status by mid-childhood and mid-life: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

International Journal of Obesity volume 42, pages 1771–1781 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Background

Hearing loss is a disabling condition whose prevalence rises with age. Obesity—a risk factor common to many non-communicable diseases—now appears to be implicated. We aimed to determine: (1) cross-sectional associations of body composition measures with hearing in mid-childhood and mid-life and (2) its longitudinal associations with 10-year body mass index (BMI) trajectories.

Methods

Design & Participants: There were 1481 11–12-year-old children and 1266 mothers in the population-based cross-sectional CheckPoint study nested within the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Anthropometry (CheckPoint): BMI, fat/fat-free mass indices, waist-to-height ratio; LSAC wave 2–6-biennial measured BMI. Audiometry (CheckPoint): Mean hearing threshold across 1, 2 and 4 kHz; hearing loss (threshold > 15 dB HL, better ear). Analysis: Latent class models identifying BMI trajectories; linear/logistic regression quantifying associations of body composition/trajectories with hearing threshold/loss.

Results

Measures of adiposity, but not fat-free mass, were cross-sectionally associated with hearing. Fat mass index predicted the hearing threshold and loss in children (β 0.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.3–0.8, P < 0.001;, odds ratio (OR) 1.2, 95% CI 1.0–1.4, P = 0.05) and mothers (β 0.8, 95% CI 0.5–1.2, P < 0.001; OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1–1.4, P = 0.003). Concurrent obesity (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1–2.1, P = 0.02) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) ≥ 0.6 (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2–2.3, P = 0.01) predicted maternal hearing, with similar but attenuated patterns in children. In longitudinal analyses, mothers’, but not children’s, BMI trajectories predicted hearing (OR for severely obese 3.0, 95% CI 1.4–6.6, P = 0.01).

Conclusions

Concurrent adiposity and decade-long BMI trajectories showed small, but clear, associations with poor hearing in mid-life women, with emergent patterns by mid-childhood. This suggests that obesity may play a role in the rising global burden of hearing loss. Replication and mechanistic and body compositional studies could elucidate possible causal relationships.

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Acknowledgements

This article uses unit-record data from Growing Up in Australia, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. The study is conducted in partnership between the Department of Social Services, the Australian Institute of Family Studies and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The findings and views reported in this paper are solely those of the authors. M.W. and J.W. had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of data analysis. Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) tools were used in this study. More information about this software can be found at: www.project-redcap.org. We thank the LSAC and CheckPoint study participants, staff and students for their contributions.

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grants 1041352 and 1109355, The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation (2014-241), the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the University of Melbourne, the National Heart Foundation of Australia (100660), Financial Markets Foundation for Children (2014-055, 2016-310) and the Victorian Deaf Education Institute. The funding bodies did not play any role in the study. The following authors were supported by the NHMRC: V.S. (Early Career Fellowship 1125687), K.L. (Early Career Fellowship APP1091124), P.C. (Centre of Research Excellence in Child Language 1023493), R.L. (Postgraduate Scholarship 1114567) and M.W. (Senior Research Fellowship 1046518) in this work. V.S. was additionally supported by the Cottrell Research Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, K.L. by the National Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (101239) and M.W. by Cure Kids, New Zealand.

Author contribution

M.W. conceived and led the CheckPoint study with the CheckPoint team and was LSAC’s Health Design Leader. M.W. was the primary student supervisor along with V.S. and oversaw all aspects of the study and the manuscript preparation. R.L. contributed to hearing data collection and, under the guidance of P.C., designed the hearing protocols. T.O. led the body composition measures. J.W. and K.L. conducted data extraction, cleaning and handling. J.W. performed data analysis and wrote the main paper. M.W., T.O., P.C., S.Z. and A.G. advised on statistical issues and interpretation. All authors critically reviewed the manuscripts and had the final approval of the submitted and published version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Jing Wang, Valerie Sung, Kate Lycett, Peter Carew, Richard S. Liu, Anneke Grobler, Tim Olds & Melissa Wake

  2. Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Jing Wang, Valerie Sung, Kate Lycett, Peter Carew, Richard S. Liu, Anneke Grobler & Melissa Wake

  3. Department of General Medicine, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Valerie Sung

  4. Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Peter Carew

  5. Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, West Perth, WA, Australia

    Stephen R. Zubrick

  6. Centre for Child Health Research, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

    Stephen R. Zubrick

  7. Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Tim Olds

  8. Department of Paediatrics & The Liggins Institute, The University of Auckland, Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand

    Melissa Wake

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  1. Jing Wang
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Correspondence to Melissa Wake.

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Wang, J., Sung, V., Lycett, K. et al. How body composition influences hearing status by mid-childhood and mid-life: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Int J Obes 42, 1771–1781 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-018-0170-6

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