Associations between retinopathy of prematurity and the risks of hearing loss: A propensity matched analysis

While retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and hearing loss (HL) share many risk factors, whether patients with ROP have a higher risk of HL remains largely unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the association between ROP and the risk of having HL.

The electronic medical records contained in a United States national database were retrospectively reviewed. Patients younger than 18 years old with a record of receiving hearing screening were included. Eligible patients with a history of ROP were assigned to the ROP cohort, while those without ROP diagnosis after vision screening served as controls. After adjusting for covariates via propensity score matching, the two cohorts were compared to evaluate the odds ratios (OR) of having hearing loss. To assess the impact of ROP severity and treatment on the OR, secondary analyses were additionally performed by further stratifying the ROP cohort based on the severity and treatment status.

The primary analysis revealed that, compared to controls (n = 2,978, mean age: 2.34 ± 2.77 years; 51.1 % female) the ROP cohort (n = 2,978, mean age: 2.40 ± 3.13 years; 50.9 % female) had higher odds of having HL (OR = 1.42, CI = 1.25-1.61). However, among patients with ROP, the odds of HL did not differ between the mild and severe cohorts (OR = 0.99, CI = 0.73-1.34) or between the treated and untreated cohorts (OR = 0.79, CI = 0.50-1.24).

HL was more common among children with ROP after adjusting for other risk factors of HL. Confirmation of this association in future controlled research settings could provide a rationale for increasing the frequency of hearing screening in children with ROP.