Increased prevalence of hearing loss, tinnitus and sudden deafness among patients with Sjogren's syndrome.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to provide an updated prevalence of hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo and sudden deafness on patients with Sjogren's syndrome and matched comparison patients. METHODS: Data for this study were retrieved from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database and Taiwan's registered catastrophic illness dataset. This study included 20 266 patients with Sjogren's syndrome as the study group and 60 798 propensity score-matched comparison patients as the comparison group. We used multivariable logistic regressions to estimate the ORs and 95% CI for tinnitus, hearing loss, vertigo and sudden deafness among Sjogren's syndrome patients versus comparison patients. RESULTS: chi(2) tests showed there were statistically significant differences between the study group and comparison group in the prevalence of tinnitus (10.1% vs 6.3%, p<0.001), hearing loss (5.6% vs 3.3%, p<0.001), vertigo (4.6% vs 3.2%, p<0.001) and sudden deafness (0.8% vs 0.6%, p<0.001). Multiple logistic regression revealed that patients with Sjogren's syndrome had a greater tendency to have tinnitus (OR=1.690, 95% CI 1.596-1.788), sudden deafness (OR=1.368, 95% CI 1.137-1.647), hearing loss (OR=1.724, 95% CI 1.598-1.859) and vertigo (OR=1.473, 95% CI 1.360-1.597) relative to comparison patients after adjusting for age, income, geographic location, residential urbanisation level, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia and rheumatoid arthritis. CONCLUSIONS: We found higher prevalence of hearing loss, vertigo, tinnitus and sudden deafness among patients with Sjogren's syndrome relative to comparison patients. Findings may provide guidance to physicians in counselling patients with Sjogren's syndrome regarding a higher risk of hearing loss, tinnitus, sudden deafness and vertigo.