(208) Central Sensitivity Disorders Are Associated with Increased Risk of Hearing Loss: Real World Evidence Study

Introduction: Central sensitivity disorders (CSDs) are a group of conditions characterized by brain sensitization, resulting in heightened responses to sensory stimuli and associated with chronic pain. While CSD has been implicated in various neurologic and somatic symptoms, its potential relationship with auditory dysfunction remains poorly understood. This study aimed to evaluate the association between CSD and the risk of subsequent hearing loss in a large real-world population.

Methods: The TriNetX global research network analyzed adults aged 18–60 years over a 10-year period to compare patients with CSD to non-CSD controls. CSD was identified using ICD-10-CM codes (e.g., fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine, etc.), with index dates defined as the first CSD diagnosis for cases and first clinical encounter for controls. One-to-one propensity score matching (PSM) was applied. Incident hearing loss was assessed using ICD-10 codes, excluding conductive hearing loss, and outcomes were evaluated using absolute risk differences with 95% confidence intervals and Kaplan–Meier time-to-event analyses.

Results: Each cohort included 805,430 patients with similar age and sex distributions. After excluding patients with hearing loss prior to the index date, 2,164 of 802,714 patients (0.27%) in the CSD cohort developed incident hearing loss compared to 687 of 804,516 patients (0.085%) in the control cohort. The absolute risk difference was 0.184% (95% CI, 0.171%–0.197%; p< 0.001). The corresponding risk ratio was 3.17, and the odds ratio was 3.16, indicating a substantially higher cumulative incidence of hearing loss among patients with CSD. The Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated a significantly higher cumulative incidence of hearing loss in the CSD cohort during follow-up (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Central sensitivity disorder was associated with an increased risk of subsequent hearing loss. These findings suggest a potential relationship between central sensitization and auditory dysfunction and support further investigation into shared mechanisms linking CSD and hearing loss.