Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33509127›Full record

ArticleBMC public health2021

Explaining better hearing in Norway: a comparison of two cohorts 20 years apart - the HUNT study.

Bo Engdahl, Hein Stigum, Lisa Aarhus

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
2.0field-weighted citation impact, top 14% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Occupation and 20-year hearing decline: findings from The HUNT Study.Occupational medicine (Oxford, England) · 2022
    Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Bo EngdahlDepartment of Chronic Diseases and Ageing, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Postbox 4404 Nydalen, N-0403, Oslo, Norway. bolars.engdahl@fhi.no.ORCID 0000-0002-9166-5782
Hein StigumDepartment of Chronic Diseases and Ageing, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Postbox 4404 Nydalen, N-0403, Oslo, Norway.ORCID 0000-0002-2098-1059
Lisa AarhusDepartment of Occupational Medicine and Epidemiology, National Institute of Occupational Health, Oslo, Norway.ORCID 0000-0003-1815-4983
Norwegian Institute of Public Health · NONational Institute of Occupational Health · NO

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe hearing function at a given age seems to have improved in more recent born cohorts in industrialized countries. But the reasons for the improvement have not yet been explained.

methodsWe investigated the extent to which better hearing in Norway is attributed to modifiable risk factors by using representative demographic and audiometric data from two cohorts of the Trøndelag Health Study, HUNT2 (1996-1998) and HUNT4 (2017-2019). We estimated natural indirect effects using causal inference methods in order to assess whether cohort improvement in hearing thresholds (HTs) was mediated by occupational noise exposure, recurrent ear infections, smoking and education.

resultsThe improvement in HTs from HUNT2 to HUNT4 was 2.8 and 3.0 dB at low respectively high frequencies. Together all risk factors mediated this improvement by 0.8 dB (95% CI 0.7-0.9) and 0.8 dB (95% CI 0.7-0.9) respectively, corresponding to mediated proportions of 27 and 28%. Substantial mediation was specifically found for occupational noise in men and recurrent ear infections in women (mediated proportions of 11 and 17% at high frequencies, respectively).

conclusionsIncreased education, less occupational noise exposure, ear infections and smoking contributed considerably to better hearing in Norway the last two decades.

Indexed as

Hearing Loss, Noise-InducedNoise, OccupationalAudiometryFemaleHearingHumansMaleNorwayCausal inferenceEar infectionsHearing lossMediation analysisOccupational noiseSmoking

Identifiers

PMID33509127
PMCPMC7844976
OpenAlexW3124553789

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.