scholarly journals Childhood hearing impairment and fertility in Norway

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vegard Skirbekk ◽  
Éric Bonsang ◽  
Bo Engdahl

AbstractThere is a lack of studies assessing how hearing impairment relates to reproductive outcomes. We examined whether childhood hearing impairment (HI) affects reproductive patterns based on longitudinal Norwegian population level data for birth cohorts 1940–1980. We used Poisson regression to estimate the association between the number of children ever born and HI. The association with childlessness is estimated by a logit model. As a robustness check, we also estimated family fixed effects Poisson and logit models. Hearing was assessed at ages 7, 10 and 13, and reproduction was observed at adult ages until 2014. Air conduction hearing threshold levels were obtained by pure-tone audiometry at eight frequencies from 0.25 to 8 kHz. Fertility data were collected from Norwegian administrative registers. The combined dataset size was N = 50,022. Our analyses reveal that HI in childhood is associated with lower fertility in adulthood, especially for men. The proportion of childless individuals among those with childhood HI was almost twice as large as that of individuals with normal childhood hearing (20.8% vs. 10.7%). The negative association is robust to the inclusion of family fixed effects in the model that allow to control for the unobserved heterogeneity that are shared between siblings, including factors related to the upbringing and parent characteristics. Less family support in later life could add to the health challenges faced by those with HI. More attention should be given to how fertility relates to HI.

Author(s):  
Giorgio Di Gessa ◽  
Valeria Bordone ◽  
Bruno Arpino

Abstract Grandparents play an important role in their family’s lives. However, little is known about the demography of grandparenthood. Given dramatic recent changes in fertility, we explore the role of number of children and age at first birth in the timing of the transition into grandparenthood focusing on Italy, a country with well-known North-South fertility differentials. We used data from the 2009 Italian Survey ‘Family and Social Relations’ (N = 10,186) to estimate median ages of grandparenthood across three birth cohorts of parents (1920–29; 1930–39; 1940–49). Findings show an overall postponement of age of grandparenthood of 5 years, shifting for women from early to mid- or late-50s (in the South and North, respectively). Such postponement is largely driven by family compositional changes: although the age of grandparenthood among mothers of three or more children has not changed much over cohorts, the percentage of mothers with such characteristic decreased significantly. The heterogeneity in experiencing the transition to grandparenthood has implications for intergenerational transfers and other roles in later life.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-356
Author(s):  
Nadine Reibling ◽  
Katja Möhring

Abstract This study investigates how women’s and men’s fertility history affect their health in later life and if this relationship varies across countries and cohorts. We use life history data and current health status of persons aged 50 and over from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for 13 countries. Country-fixed effects regressions show that parenthood itself and the number of children have little impact on later life health, but fertility timing is important. Moreover, significant country and cohort differences show that the health implications of timing depend upon the socio-historic context.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-63
Author(s):  
Neeti Bhat ◽  
Narayan Bahadur Mahotra ◽  
Lava Shrestha ◽  
Tirtha Man Shrestha ◽  
Prashant Tripathi ◽  
...  

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic, systemic and metabolic disorder known to affect almost every organ due to its unequivocal complications. The auditory organ is often affected but usually ignored complications of diabetes mellitus. With the rise in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and hearing impairment in developing countries, it becomes a crucial public health issue if both of them are found to be associated. Objective: To find the prevalence of hearing impairment in diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Department of Clinical Physiology in collaboration with the Department of General Practice and Emergency Medicine and the Department of Otorhinolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. After applying exclusion criteria, 55 subjects were recruited for the study. Pure Tone Audiometry, a non-invasive test was used to assess hearing threshold in this study. Audiogram findings of diabetics were then analyzed. Results: Outcomes of the tests revealed that 17 (30%) of subjects with diabetes mellitus had hearing loss, out of which 13 had mild hearing loss. A significantly positive correlation was found between age and hearing threshold at every frequency. Higher frequencies were found to be more affected. The best cut-off age for onset of hearing loss in diabetics was found to be 51.50 years. Conclusion: Current study suggests a 30% prevalence of hearing loss in diabetes mellitus. We observed hearing loss more among the elderly at higher frequencies


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S551-S551
Author(s):  
Jennifer A Deal ◽  
Andreea Rawlings ◽  
A Richey Sharrett ◽  
Nicholas Reed ◽  
Joshua Betz ◽  
...  

Abstract Hearing impairment is a risk factor for dementia but the mechanism underlying this association is unknown. We investigated the relationship between hearing and cognitive performance and brain β-amyloid deposition in 252 adults aged 67-88 years (37% black race) without dementia from three U.S. communities. Global cortical standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) were calculated from florbetapir-positron emission tomography scans, with elevated SUVR defined as >1.2 (the median value). Air conduction hearing threshold levels for the frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz were obtained by pure tone audiometry and averaged for the better-hearing ear to yield a pure tone average (PTA) in decibels hearing level (dB). A composite cognitive score was created from ten neuropsychological tests summarized using latent variable methods. Multivariable-adjusted linear and Poisson regression with robust standard errors were used to estimate the average difference in cognitive scores and prevalence of elevated SUVR, respectively, by hearing impairment status. In analyses adjusted for age, sex, education and APOE ε4 status, hearing was not associated with elevated SUVR [prevalence ratio per 10 db increase (worse hearing) = 0.94 (95% CI: 0.84, 1.04)]. Results did not differ by race. In contrast, each 10 db increase in hearing impairment was associated with 0.08 standard deviation (95% CI: 0.02, 0.15) lower cognitive score, after adjustment for demographic and cardiovascular factors. Poorer hearing is associated with poorer cognitive performance but not with amyloid deposition, suggesting that the mechanism underlying the relationship between hearing and cognition may be independent of Alzheimer’s-related pathologic brain changes.


2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ni Ketut Susilawati ◽  
Wayan Sudana ◽  
Eka Putra Setiawan

Background: Noise pollution or noise is an unwanted sound which is disturbing to human beings.However small or soft the sound, if it is undesirable it is considered as noise. Noise induced hearingloss is a sensorineural hearing loss that is commonly encountered second to presbycusis. Purpose: Toknow the effect of traffic noise exposure on hearing impairment to the employees of the Parking DistrictCompany of the Denpasar city and to improve diagnostic detection on hearing impairment caused bynoise. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted at the Parking District Company office. Thepopulations of this study were the employees of the Parking District Company. Samples of this study were the employees who were exposed to traffic noise and control samples were an employee who was unexposed. Samples were selected by simple random sampling. Results: From 40 parking attendants,27 persons (67.5%) aged above 35 years old. The parking attendants who had been working for ten to fifteen years were 36 persons (90%) and no history using ear protection when working. Seven persons(17.5%) had referred DPOAE upon examination with increase hearing threshold on audiogram result.In this study the parking attendants who had hearing deficit induced by noise were 7 persons (17.5%)and only one person (2.5%) in control group. There was a statistically significant effect of traffic noiseto hearing function deficit (p<0.05). Conclusion: Traffic noise has effect in hearing function deficit onthe parking attendants.ORLI Vol. 40 No. 2 Tahun 2010Key words: NIHL, parking attendant, audiometry, DPOAE.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 40-41
Author(s):  
Hankyung Jun

Abstract Self-employed workers are often reported to have better health than salaried workers. Whether this is because self-employment has health benefits or healthier workers are self-employed is not clear. Self-employed workers may have higher job satisfaction due to higher levels of self-efficacy and autonomy, but may also experience higher job stress, uncertainty, and lack of health insurance leading to mental health problems. Self-employed workers in the U.S. may have different characteristics than those in Mexico and Korea given different working and living environments as well as different institutional arrangements. This study will examine the association between self-employment and mental and cognitive health for older adults in the U.S., Mexico, and South Korea. It uses harmonized panel data from the Health and Retirement Study, the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, and the Mexican Health and Aging Study. We compare the health and selection effect of self-employment using a pooled logistic model, fixed-effects model, and a bivariate probit model. In addition to comparing self-employed and salaried workers, we analyze differences between self-employed with and without employees. By using rich data and various models, we address reverse causality and estimate the relationship between self-employment and health. We show that the positive health effects of self-employed workers in the U.S. disappear once controlled for unobserved heterogeneity, indicating the possibility of healthier workers selecting into self-employment. Interestingly, for Korea and Mexico, healthier individuals seem to select into wage work which reflects the difference in working conditions across countries. Further analysis will show effects by business size.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. e043956
Author(s):  
Guizuo Wang ◽  
Dong Han ◽  
Zhengdong Jiang ◽  
Manxiang Li ◽  
Shumei Yang ◽  
...  

ObjectiveEarly life bronchiolitis has been hypothesised to be associated with the subsequent risk of persistent wheezing or asthma. However, the link remains controversial. The objective of our study was to evaluate the association between bronchiolitis before 2 years of age and the late-onset wheezing/asthma.DesignSystematic review and meta-analysis.MethodsPubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases were systematically searched for studies published between 1955 and January 2020. Meanwhile, we also checked through the reference lists of relevant articles to see whether these references included reports of other studies that might be eligible for the review. Cohort and case–control studies assessing the association between early-life bronchiolitis and late-onset wheezing/asthma were included in this meta-analysis. Data were extracted by two independent reviewers. Results were pooled using a random-effects model or fixed-effects model according to the heterogeneity among studies.Results32 original articles with 292 844 participants, which met the criteria, were included in this meta-analysis. Bronchiolitis before 2 years of age was associated with an increased risk of subsequent wheezing/asthma (relative risk=2.46, 95% CI 2.14 to 2.82, p<0.001). After categorising studies into different groups based on age at the end of follow-up, geographical region and study quality, the association still remained significant.ConclusionsThe meta-analysis indicates an association between bronchiolitis before 2 years of age and the wheezing/asthma in later life. Well-designed and highly standardised prospective studies that better address bias due to potential confounding factors are needed to validate the risk identified in our meta-analysis.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42018089453.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 513-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Bianco-Miotto ◽  
J. M. Craig ◽  
Y. P. Gasser ◽  
S. J. van Dijk ◽  
S. E. Ozanne

Developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) is the study of how the early life environment can impact the risk of chronic diseases from childhood to adulthood and the mechanisms involved. Epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs are involved in mediating how early life environment impacts later health. This review is a summary of the Epigenetics and DOHaD workshop held at the 2016 DOHaD Society of Australia and New Zealand Conference. Our extensive knowledge of how the early life environment impacts later risk for chronic disease would not have been possible without animal models. In this review we highlight some animal model examples that demonstrate how an adverse early life exposure results in epigenetic and gene expression changes that may contribute to increased risk of chronic disease later in life. Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease are chronic diseases with an increasing incidence due to the increased number of children and adults that are obese. Epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation have been shown to be associated with metabolic health measures and potentially predict future metabolic health status. Although more difficult to elucidate in humans, recent studies suggest that DNA methylation may be one of the epigenetic mechanisms that mediates the effects of early life exposures on later life risk of obesity and obesity related diseases. Finally, we discuss the role of the microbiome and how it is a new player in developmental programming and mediating early life exposures on later risk of chronic disease.


2006 ◽  
Vol 120 (8) ◽  
pp. 613-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
W Maier ◽  
J Schipper

Low-frequency hearing impairment (LFHI) is mainly attributed to endolymphatic hydrops and has a great variety of possible outcomes. At present, no conservative therapeutic regimen has proven to be ‘gold-standard’, and information about the prognostic indicators of LFHI is scarce.In a retrospective investigation, we evaluated the records of 90 patients who had been treated with infusions improving blood perfusion. In patients lacking complete remission, dehydration infusion therapy was added. We also undertook audiometric follow up. We calculated the outcomes after infusion therapy, dehydration therapy and after long-time hearing follow up, and we determined the prognostic relevance of several parameters of anamnesis and clinical examination to outcomes, for both therapeutic interventions and long-time hearing.The prognosis of LFHI was significantly correlated to certain anamnestic and clinical parameters; a short duration of the disease, lack of vertigo and female gender implied a better outcome. The pretherapeutic hearing threshold was an important prognostic factor; the outcome was significantly worse in patients with distinct hearing impairment in low or high frequencies, compared with that in patients with little hearing loss. Whereas vertigo was a negative prognostic factor, the results of quantitative vestibular testing were irrelevant to the outcome. The glycerol test failed to predict the effectiveness of dehydration therapy and lacked any value in predicting prognosis.These results allow the clinician to focus the anamnesis and diagnostic examination on prognostically relevant parameters, thus enabling a better estimation of the long-term disease course and improved counselling of patients. Furthermore, these results help to distinguish valuable from irrelevant diagnostic procedures.


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