Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1431122
This article is part of the Research Topic Toxicity Mechanisms, Exposure, Toxicokinetic and Risk Assessment Aspects of Metals, Toxic for Animals and Humans, Volume III View all 6 articles

Association between urinary arsenic and hearing threshold shifts in adults in the United States, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2015-2016

Provisionally accepted
Lili Long Lili Long 1Zhenchao Jia Zhenchao Jia 1*Tao Liu Tao Liu 2*
  • 1 Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
  • 2 Air Force Hospital of the Western Theater of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Hearing loss (HL) is a common sensory disorder in humans. Studies on the relationship between arsenic, which is a highly toxic and widely distributed heavy metal with a health risk to humans, and hearing status in humans are contradictory and mostly focused on people living in arsenic-contaminated areas. This study investigated the association between urinary arsenic levels and hearing threshold shifts in the general population in the United States.Methods: Overall, 1017 adults (aged 20-69 years) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015-2016) were included in this study. HL was defined as pure-tone average (PTA) ≥ 20 dB at frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz in the better-hearing ear. Total urinary arsenic (uAs) and dimethylarsinic acid (uDMA) levels were analyzed. Multivariate linear regression analyses and smooth curve fitting were performed to evaluate the correlations between uDMA, uAs, and low-, speech-, and high-frequency hearing levels.Results: The mean age of the participants was 42.13 ± 13.66 years, including weighted 48.67% men and 12.88% participants with sensorineural HL. After adjusting for potential confounders in the multivariate linear regression model, higher uDMA levels were significantly associated with poor low-, and speech-frequency PTAs, with no differences among participants by age or sex. Smooth Urinary Arsenic and Hearing Loss 2 curve fitting indicated a nonlinear relationship between uAs and high-frequency PTA hearing threshold shifts. The uAs levels were positively associated with high-frequency PTA until the turning point of 1.54 (adjusted β 4.53, 95% CI 1.16, 7.90; P = 0.0085), beyond which this association was not observed (adjusted β -0.43, 95% CI -1.57, 0.71; P = 0.4600).We found positive associations between urinary arsenic metabolites uDMA, uAs levels and poor hearing threshold shifts in US adults. This study provides new evidence for the association between arsenic exposure and auditory function.

    Keywords: arsenic metabolites, Hearing threshold shift, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Cross-sectional study, adults

    Received: 11 May 2024; Accepted: 06 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Long, Jia and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Zhenchao Jia, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
    Tao Liu, Air Force Hospital of the Western Theater of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.