Comparison of Risk of Conductive Hearing Loss Among Three Ethnic Groups of Arctic Audiology Patients

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relative contributions of age, gender, ethnic background, and a history of middle ear disease on the amount of conductive hearing impairment among native and non-native audiology patients in the Canadian North. A second goal of the study was to determine risk factors for conductive hearing loss in the patients studied. Three ethnic groups were represented among the 3,094 patients: Inuit, American Indian, and non-native. Loglinear and logit statistical models were applied, and these data were best explained by a 3-way interaction of history of middle ear disease, ethnic group, and hearing loss, and the 2-way interaction of age and hearing loss. The Inuit appear to be at higher risk for conductive hearing impairment than the other ethnic groups. Conductive hearing loss also appears to increase as age increases through the teenage years for all the patients regardless of ethnic group membership. Preschoolers were at the lowest risk for conductive hearing loss. The trend for the amount of hearing impairment to increase throughout childhood suggests that children living in the Arctic may manifest a unique and more serious form of the disease not often observed in audiology patients who are Caucasian in southern Canada or the United States or that they may be exposed to additional risk factors.