People with an ideal lifestyle had a 14% lower risk of hearing impairment than those with a poor lifestyle.
Smoking cessation and spending less time sedentary were the lifestyle factors most strongly linked to lower risk.
Metabolic factors, including BMI and HDL cholesterol, appeared to explain more of the connection than inflammatory markers.
When people think about protecting their hearing, avoiding loud concerts or turning down the volume on their headphones may come to mind. But new research suggests that what happens throughout the rest of the body may matter, too.
A study from researchers at Fudan University found that adults with a healthier overall lifestyle had a lower risk of developing hearing impairment over more than 14 years of follow-up. The researchers were particularly interested in why lifestyle appeared to be connected to hearing health, and their findings pointed toward metabolism as an important piece of the puzzle.
How the researchers studied the connection
The researchers analyzed data from 441,844 U.K. Biobank participants between ages 40 and 69 at baseline. Participants were followed for a median of 14.22 years, during which 20,743 cases of hearing impairment were recorded.
The team created a lifestyle score based on seven behaviors: smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, sleep duration, sedentary time, social contact, and dietary supplement use. Participants were grouped into poor, intermediate, or ideal lifestyle categories based on their scores.
The researchers also examined biological markers related to inflammation and metabolism. Metabolic health was assessed using measures including glucose, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, and BMI. The researchers then used statistical analyses to determine how much these biological factors might explain the relationship between lifestyle and hearing impairment.
What the results mean for consumers
People in the ideal lifestyle group had a 14% lower risk of developing hearing impairment compared with those in the poor-lifestyle group. Among individual behaviors, quitting smoking appeared to offer the greatest potential benefit, followed by reducing sedentary time.
Metabolic factors appeared to be particularly important. BMI and HDL cholesterol accounted for roughly 16.5% and 14%, respectively, of the lifestyle-hearing association, while individual inflammatory markers each accounted for less than 6%. Physical activity, less sitting, and healthy sleep were primarily linked to hearing through metabolic pathways.
That doesn't mean lifestyle changes can guarantee someone will avoid hearing impairment. The study was observational, so it can't prove that healthier habits directly prevent hearing problems, and hearing impairment was identified using medical records rather than objective hearing tests.
Still, the findings suggest that hearing health may be connected to more than what's happening inside the ear — and that taking care of metabolic health could be one piece of the bigger picture.