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Hearing impairment among adult foreign-born and Swedish-born individuals: A national Swedish study.

Authors :
Per Wändell
Xinjun Li
Axel Carlsson
Jan Sundquist
Kristina Sundquist
Source :
PLoS ONE, Vol 17, Iss 8, p e0273406 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2022.

Abstract

ObjectivesTo analyze the risk of hearing impairment in adult first-generation immigrants, i.e., foreign-born individuals as compared to Swedish-born individuals.Study designA register-based study follow-up study.MethodsA nationwide study of individuals 25 years of age and older (N = 5 464 245; 2 627 364 men and 2 836 881 women) in Sweden. Hearing impairment was defined as at least one registered diagnosis in the National Patient Register between January 1st, 1998 and December 31st, 2015. Cox regression analysis was used to estimate the relative risk (hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI)) of incident hearing impairment in foreign-born compared to Swedish-born individuals. Cox regression models were stratified by sex and adjusted for age, comorbidities, and socioeconomic status.ResultsA total of 244 171 cases (124 349 men and 119 822 women) of hearing impairment were registered. Hearing impairment risk expressed as fully adjusted HRs (99% CI) was somewhat lower among immigrant men 0.95 (0.92-97) but not among immigrant women 0.97 (0.95-1.00), with significantly higher fully adjusted HRs among men and women from Asia, and Eastern Europe, and women from Africa.ConclusionsWe observed a somewhat lower risk of hearing impairment among foreign-born men, but there was a higher risk among men and women from some regions.

Subjects

Subjects :
Medicine
Science

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19326203
Volume :
17
Issue :
8
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
PLoS ONE
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.1a1c784be2b64e0cb1f732590b80ec16
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273406