Hearing Loss Is Associated With Depression and Dysthymia in the All of Us Research Program

To investigate the association between hearing loss and depressive disorders in a large national cohort.

Cross-sectional epidemiologic study.

Adults ≥ 18 years old from the federally initiated All of Us Research Program were analyzed. The exposure was bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) defined by ICD-10 code (H90.3). The outcomes were depressive disorders defined by major depressive disorder (ICD-10 codes F32-33) and dysthymia (ICD-10 code F34.1). The odds of depression or dysthymia in subjects with and without hearing loss were assessed with univariable and multivariable regression, controlling for known confounding variables (age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, hypertension, and type II diabetes).

Out of the 375,438 participants with complete data, the mean (SD) age was 55 years (±17). 61.7% of subjects identified as female. The cohort included 25,260 (6.7%) individuals with a bilateral SNHL diagnosis. After controlling for covariates, the odds of major depressive disorder diagnosis were 2.05 times (95% CI 1.99-2.11; p < 0.001) higher for those with hearing loss compared to those without hearing loss. After controlling for covariates, the odds of dysthymia diagnosis were 2.68 times (95% CI 2.50-2.88; p < 0.001) higher for those with hearing loss compared to those without hearing loss.

In the All of Us Research Program, bilateral SNHL is strongly associated with major depressive disorder and dysthymia. This supports the growing body of literature linking psychological disorders, specifically depression, with hearing loss. Future studies should look at stratified analyses, enabled by the massive sample size in the All of Us Research Program.