Does snoring contribute to presbycusis?

It is well known that hearing acuity decreases with age. The precise mechan ism responsible for this phenomenon, called presbycusis, is unknown. One hy pothesis advanced to explain this loss of acuity implicates chronic exposur e to snoring noise. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to investig ate whether snoring is associated with hearing loss. We examined 219 patien ts (63 women and 156 men) referred to our sleep disorders center. All of th e patients underwent nocturnal polysomnography with measurements of snoring , as well as standard audiometry (i.e., measurement of hearing thresholds a t 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, 3 kHz, 4 kHz, 6 kHz, and 8 kHz). Snoring wa s quantified by measuring three parameters: snoring index (SI = number of s nores/h of sleep), average nocturnal sound intensity (dBav), and maximum no cturnal sound intensity (dBmax). We used simple correlation analysis to inv estigate the relationship between snoring and hearing thresholds; multiple linear regression analysis to determine individual contributions of age, se x, and snoring to the variability in hearing thresholds; and comparison tes ts to determine whether mild snorers had less hearing impairment than sever e snorers. None of these statistical tests demonstrated that snoring was a significant determinant of hearing. We conclude that snoring is not associa ted with hearing loss and is therefore unlikely to account for presbycusis.