A new study suggests that young adults who were malnourished at an early age were approximately twice as likely to experience hearing loss as their better- nourished peers.
The study, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States (U.S.), analyzed the relationship between the hearing of more than 2,200 young adults in Nepal and their nutritional levels as children 16 years earlier.
The study which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggest that nutritional interventions in South Asia could assist prevent hearing loss, a condition which currently affects an estimated 116 million youths in the region.
Hearing loss is the fourth foremost cause of disability worldwide and an estimated 80 percent of affected persons live in low- and middle-income countries.
Prevalence estimates of hearing impairment among kids and young adults in South Asia range from 14 to 28 percent of the population.
Keith West Jr., a professor of International Health at the Bloomberg School and the principal investigator of the study stated that the findings intends to elevate hearing loss as a still neglected public health challenge, adding that nutrition interventions in early childhood might assist prevent same.
The lead author was Susan Emmett, MD, MPH, an otolaryngologist who conducted the analysis and wrote the paper as a postdoctoral fellow at the Bloomberg School’s Center for Human Nutrition.
From 2006 to 2008, researchers tested the hearing of more than 2,200 young adults. All study participants had been part of a nutrition trial carried out between 1989 and 1991 in the District of Sarlahi in Nepal that collected information to assess their nutritional status.
Results of the auditory tests show that young adults who were stunted in childhood were nearly twice as likely to show signs of hearing loss. Being too short for one’s age, is a persistent condition of undernourishment that often starts before birth, which is a crucial time for the development of auditory function.
Researchers suspect that impeded inner ear development caused by malnutrition, especially during pregnancy, may contribute to the increased risk of hearing loss found in the research.
Participants who were too skinny as children were also at a twofold increase of hearing loss. Being too thin for one’s age is typically caused by acute malnutrition, defined as shorter, more severe periods of undernutrition.
Acute malnutrition increases children’s susceptibility to infections, including those of the ear. Repeated ear infections can also lead to hearing loss.
