Marriage and cohabiting rates among people with childhood sensorineural hearing loss in a large Norwegian cohort: results from the SHINT and the HUNT study

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the association between childhood sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and cohabiting/marriage rates in a large Norwegian cohort.

Design: This study is based on data from the School Hearing Investigation in Nord-Trøndelag (SHINT), data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT), and registry data on marital status from Statistics Norway. Marital status is measured yearly from 1975–2015 (marriage) and 1987–2014 (cohabitation). The association between SNHL and marital status was tested using multinomial logistic regression models estimating odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusting for age, sex, and education.

Study sample: The total sample comprised 50,022 participants born between 1940 and 1980. SNHL in SHINT of 41 dB or more was defined as moderate-profound (N = 216), 26–40 dB as mild (N = 294) and 16–25 dB as slight (N = 246).

Results: There was a significant association between any SNHL and cohabitation (OR = .56, 95% CI = 0.43–0.72) and marriage (OR = .50, 95% CI = 0.40–0.62), between mild SNHL and cohabitation (OR = .58, 95% CI = 0.40–0.86) and marriage (OR = .40, 95% CI = 0.29–0.56), and between moderate-profound SNHL and cohabitation (OR = .43, 95% CI = 0.26–0.71) and marriage (OR = .45, 95% CI = 0.31–0.66).

Conclusions: Childhood SNHL reduces the likelihood of cohabitation and marriage.

Keywords:

• Sensorineural hearing loss
• cohabiting
• marriage
• children
• cohort

Acknowledgements

The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (The HUNT Study) is a collaboration between HUNT Research Centre (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU), Nord-Trøndelag County Council and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The authors also thank our colleagues in Nord-Trøndelag involved in the School Hearing Investigation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of the study are available from the HUNT Research Centre (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU) upon application. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for this study.

Additional information

Funding

The present study received funding from the Extra Foundation: Health and Rehabilitation, Oslo, Norway [Grant number 2014/FOM5652] through a grant application sent in collaboration with the member organization, the National Association of the Hard of Hearing.