Longitudinal study of dietary intake and risk of persistent tinnitus in 2 large independent cohorts of women

Persistent tinnitus is common, often disabling, and challenging to treat. Greater adherence to healthy diet patterns was associated with 30% lower risk of hearing loss. Dietary factors have also been implicated in tinnitus, but findings are not consistent and longitudinal studies are scarce. We examined the longitudinal associations of healthy diet patterns, specific food groups, individual foods, and risk of developing persistent tinnitus in 2 independent cohorts of 113 554 women, the Nurses' Health Study (1984-2022; n = 42 504) and Nurses' Health Study 2 (1991-2021; n = 71 050). Validated food frequency questionnaires assessed diet every 4 years. We used multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression to examine independent associations in cohort-specific and pooled analyses. After 2 643 510 person-years of follow-up, 22 879 cases of incident tinnitus were reported. While greater adherence to overall healthy diet patterns did not consistently reduce risk, in both cohorts, we observed that higher fruit intake was associated with reduced risk, and higher intakes of whole grains, legumes, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) were associated with greater risk of incident tinnitus. Comparing the highest to lowest quintiles of intake, the pooled multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios were as follows: 0.81 (0.77-0.85) (P trend < .0001) for fruit, 1.26 (1.20-1.32) (P trend < .0001) for whole grains, 1.13 (1.08-1.18) (P trend < .0001) for legumes, and 1.12 (1.07-1.17) (P trend < .0001) for SSBs. Diet composition appears to alter the risk of developing tinnitus.