Risk factors for Meniere disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

To summarized the latest evidence of risk factors for developing MD.

We searched Medline, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Embase, CBM, VIP, WanFANG, and CNKI, and ClinicalTrials.gov. till June 2021 for cohort and case-control studies investigating risk factors for MD. The exposure group was participants with a clinical diagnosis of MD which was made according to the diagnostic scale of the Equilibrium Committee of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), the control group was participants without MD. The outcome was determined by incidence or prognostic of MD. Paired reviewers independently screened citations, assessed bias risk of included studies using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Odds ratios (OR), hazard ratios(HR), relative risk(RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated for dichotomous data. The statistical analyses were carried out with the use of Review Manager 5.3. The level of statistical heterogeneity for pooled data were assessed by using I² statistics and Q-test.

768 abstracts and articles were identified by our search, of which 25 studies (n = 1, 471, 944) were included. There were 18 cohort studies, 7 case-control studies. Three distinct subgroups (age, sex, sleep) were identified. There were a total of two studies involving age, two studies involving gender and two studies involving sleep disorder. High to moderate methodological quality established that age [hazard ratios (HR) 2.21, 95% CI 1.85-2.65, I² = 0%] and sleep disorder[HR 1.68, 95% CI 1.47-1.93, I² = 0%] were risk factors for MD. While there was little evidence showing that sex was not a risk factor for MD [HR 1.61, 95% CI 0.91-2.84, I² = 74%].

The current evidence supports the suggestion that age and sleep disorder are risk factors for MD. Sex, gene, and hypothyroidism are tentative risk factors but conflicting/inconclusive results.

No external funding.

CRD42021248199 (Prospero).