Affiliation:
1. Department of Otolaryngology‐Head and Neck Surgery, Xiangya Hospital Central South University Changsha Hunan People's Republic of China
2. Otolaryngology Major Disease Research Key Laboratory of Hunan Province Changsha Hunan People's Republic of China
3. Clinical Research Center for Pharyngolaryngeal Diseases and Voice Disorders in Hunan Province Changsha Hunan People's Republic of China
4. National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders (Xiangya Hospital) Changsha Hunan People's Republic of China
Abstract
ObjectiveObservational studies suggest a potential association between sleep characteristics, sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), and sudden SNHL (SSNHL), but causal evidence is scarce. We sought to clarify this issue using two‐sample Mendelian randomization analysis.MethodsThe inverse‐variance weighted (IVW) method was performed as primary analysis to assess bidirectional causal associations between sleep traits (chronotype, sleep duration, insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and snoring) and SNHL/SSNHL using publicly available Genome‐Wide Association Studies summary data from two large consortia (UK Biobank and FinnGen). Sensitivity analyses, including Mendelian randomization (MR)‐Egger, Mendelian randomization pleiotropy residual sum and outlier, weight median, Cochran's Q test, leave‐one‐out analysis, and potential pleiotropy analysis, were conducted to ensure robustness.ResultsIVW analysis found suggestive associations of morning chronotype (odds ratio [OR] = 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.01–1.16, p = 0.031) and daytime sleepiness (OR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.24–2.87, p = 0.003) with SNHL onset. Additionally, morning chronotype was nominally associated with SSNHL onset using IVW method (OR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.10–1.71, p = 0.006). However, there was no evidence for the causal effect of SNHL and SSNHL on different sleep traits (all p > 0.05). Sensitivity analysis showed that the results were stable.ConclusionWithin the MR limitations, morning chronotype and daytime sleepiness were underlying causal contributors to the burden of SNHL, indicating that optimal sleep might facilitate the prevention and development of SNHL.Level of Evidence3 Laryngoscope, 2024
Funder
Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province
National Natural Science Foundation of China