Abstract
Objective
Several viruses are known to have a negative impact on hearing health. The global prevalence of COVID-19 means that it is crucial to understand whether and how SARS-CoV2 affects hearing. Evidence to date is mixed, with studies frequently exhibiting limitations in the methodological approaches used or the populations sampled, leading to a substantial risk of bias. This study addressed many of these limitations.
Design
A comprehensive battery of measures was administered, including lab-based behavioural and physiological measures, as well as self-report instruments. Performance was thoroughly assessed across the auditory system, including measures of cochlear function, neural function and auditory perception. Hypotheses and analyses were pre-registered.
Study samples
Participants who were hospitalised as a result of COVID-19 (n = 57) were compared with a well-matched control group (n = 40) who had also been hospitalised but had never had COVID-19.
Results
We find no evidence to support the hypothesis that COVID-19 is associated with deficits in auditory function on any auditory test measure. Of all the confirmatory analyses, only the self-report measure of hearing decline indicated any difference between groups.
Conclusion
Results do not support the hypothesis that COVID-19 infection has a significant long-term impact on the auditory system.
Several viruses are known to have a negative impact on hearing health. The global prevalence of COVID-19 means that it is crucial to understand whether and how SARS-CoV2 affects hearing. Evidence to date is mixed, with studies frequently exhibiting limitations in the methodological approaches used or the populations sampled, leading to a substantial risk of bias. This study addressed many of these limitations.
Design
A comprehensive battery of measures was administered, including lab-based behavioural and physiological measures, as well as self-report instruments. Performance was thoroughly assessed across the auditory system, including measures of cochlear function, neural function and auditory perception. Hypotheses and analyses were pre-registered.
Study samples
Participants who were hospitalised as a result of COVID-19 (n = 57) were compared with a well-matched control group (n = 40) who had also been hospitalised but had never had COVID-19.
Results
We find no evidence to support the hypothesis that COVID-19 is associated with deficits in auditory function on any auditory test measure. Of all the confirmatory analyses, only the self-report measure of hearing decline indicated any difference between groups.
Conclusion
Results do not support the hypothesis that COVID-19 infection has a significant long-term impact on the auditory system.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 300-312 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | International journal of audiology |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Early online date | 26 Jun 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published online - 26 Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of British Society of Audiology, International Society of Audiology, and Nordic Audiological Society.
Data Access Statement
Supplementary analyses, materials, code for analysis and de-identified data are available in the online repository for the project, which can be found at https://osf.io/rc5fu/, DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/RC5FU.Funding
This work was funded by The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), The Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Trust, The University of Manchester COVID-19 Research Appeal and was supported by the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR203308). We thank the Marston Family Foundation for funding the Mobile Research Unit and William Demant Foundation for funding some of the equipment used.
Keywords
- Speech and Hearing
- Linguistics and Language
- Language and Linguistics
- COVID-19
- SARS-Cov2
- auditory function
- hearing loss
