As if you needed more reasons to give up smoking for good, a new study has just linked the unhealthy habit to yet another health risk: hearing loss.
That’s right, not only will cigarettes increase your chances of developing heart disease and multiple cancers but, according to brand new research, they might also impact your hearing.
In the study, published today in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, researchers followed 50,000 participants over eight years in order to see whether smoking affects hearing.
And, even after taking factors such as occupational noise exposure into account, the team from Japan’s National Centre for Global Health and Medicine found that smokers were between 1.2 and 1.6 times more likely to develop hearing loss compared to people had never smoked.
This is equivalent to a 20-60% increased risk of both low-frequency and high-frequency hearing loss, Huffington Post reports.
In order to conclude this, the team compared data from annual health checks – which included audio testing – with answers from a lifestyle questionnaire designed to evaluate smoking habits.
‘With a large sample size, long follow-up period, and objective assessment of hearing loss, our study provides strong evidence that smoking is an independent risk factor of hearing loss,’ concluded lead author Dr Huanhuan Hu.
‘These results provide strong evidence to support that smoking is a causal factor for hearing loss and emphasise the need for tobacco control to prevent or delay the development of hearing loss.’
The good news? Don’t despair if you used to be a smoker but have now given up because the scientists also found that the damage appeared to be reversible. They concluded that the increased risk of hearing loss decreased after five years of giving up cigarettes.
So, if you’re still a smoker, please listen up…
