Endocrine disruptors have been reported to be associated with hearing ability. However, the association between personal care and consumer product chemicals, known as commonly detected endocrine disruptors, and age-related hearing loss still remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the association between exposure to 7 personal care and consumer product chemicals and hearing thresholds in middle-aged and elderly people. A nationally representative cross-sectional study was performed. Eight hundred forty-five adults aged over 45 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were included in this study. Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) and the k-medoid cluster analysis were used to evaluate the mixture effect of exposure to 7 chemicals on pure-tone average (PTA). Exposure to these chemicals was negatively associated with PTA. 2,5-Dichlorophenol had the greatest contribution to the mixture effect. The mixture effect was stronger in women, elderly people. Four pooled clusters were identified according to 7 chemicals exposures. Cluster 4 (high TCS exposure) showed a lower HFPTA (P = 0.00258) than cluster 3 (the lowest exposure cluster, as a reference). Our study provides evidence that exposure to personal care and consumer product chemicals might be inversely associated with PTA. More studies are needed to fully understand the association of exposure to these chemicals with hearing threshold.
Keywords: Bayesian kernel machine regression; Cluster analysis; Hearing; Personal care and consumer product chemicals.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.