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Familial aggregation of pure tone hearing tresholds in an aging European population.

Tijdschriftbijdrage - Tijdschriftartikel

Objective: to investigate the familial correlations and intracall correlation of age-related hearing impairment (ARHI) in specific frequencies. In addition, heritability estimates were calculated.

Study design: multicenter survey in 8 European centers.

Subjects: one hundred ninety-eight families consisting of 952 family members, screened by otologic examination and structured interviews. Subjects with general conditions, known to affect hearing thresholds or known otologic cause were excluded from the sudy.

Results: we detected familial correlation coefficients of 0.36, 0.37, 0.36, and 0.30 for 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2 kHz respectively, and correlation coefficients of 0.20 and 0.18 for 4 and 8 kHz, respectively. Variance components analyses showed that the proportion of the total variance attributable to family differences was between 0.32 and 0.40 for 0.25, 0.5, 1, and 2 kHz and below 0.20 for 4 and 8 kHz. When testing for homogeneity between sib pair types, we observed a larger familial correlation between female than male subjects. Heritability estimates ranged between 0.79 a,d 0.36 across the frequencies.

Discussion: our results indicate that there is a substantial shared familial effect in ARHI. We found that familial aggregation of ARHI is markedly highter in the low frequencies and that there is a trend toward higher familial aggregation in female compared with male subjects.
Tijdschrift: Otology & Neurotology : Official Publication of the American Otological Society, American Neurotology Society and European Academy of Otology and Neurotology
ISSN: 1531-7129
Volume: 34
Pagina's: 838-844
Jaar van publicatie:2013
Trefwoorden:familial, pure tone hearing tresholds, aggregation, hearing impairment
  • Scopus Id: 84880923408