No causal relationship serum lipids on age-related hearing loss based on Mendelian randomized evidence

Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss (ARHL) has been a common disability disease among the elderly population. It is particularly essential to identify the underlying role of related risk factors for ARHL diagnosis and treatment. Observational studies have shown that cardiovascular disease may be a factor in ARHL. Serum lipids are a key risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Therefore, it may be a potentially influencing factor for elderly deafness. We conduct the study to analyze the causal relationship between serum lipids and European elderly deafness.

Using genetic variation data related to serum lipids (total cholesterol levels [TCL], total triglycerides levels [TGL], and lipoprotein fractions, including apolipoprotein A1 levels [APOA1L], apolipoprotein B levels [APOBL], high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels [HDL], and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels [LDL]) as instrumental variables, the outcome events were summarized from the genome-wide association study data of elderly deafness, and Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was used in our analysis. The relationship between serum lipids levels and ARHL was analyzed using five methods, including inverse variance weighted, weighted mode, MR-Egger, weighted median, and simple mode. The study aims to use bidirectional MR analysis.

Among all 5 methods, no significant causal effects were found between serum lipids (TCL OR = 0.936, p = .488; TGL OR = 0.955, p = 0.657; APOA1L OR = 0.864, p = .061; APOBL OR = 0.979, p = .786; HDL OR = 0.998, p = .979; LDL OR = 1.089, p = .281) and presbycusis.

The findings of MR causal inference analysis did not support the causal relationship between presbycusis and serum lipids, including cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipoprotein fractions (APOA1L, APOBL, HDL and LDL).