Link Between Iron Deficiency Anemia And Hearing Loss?

Recent studies by a group of researchers suggest that there might be a link between iron deficiency anemia and disabling hearing loss.

Some Statistics

Hearing Problems - According to data from WHO, the prevalence of disabling hearing loss is the highest in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan etc) in the whole world. If an adult's hearing loss crosses 40 decibels (30 d for children) in the better hearing year then it is termed as "disabling hearing loss."

Anaemia - According to data from WHO, 65.5% preschool-age children, 48.2% pregnant women, 45.7%  non-pregnant women are suffering from some sort of anaemia in South-East Asia. Iron-deficiency continues to be the main reason behind anaemia.

Are they linked?

A group of researchers recently performed a study in the USA to find if there was any link between them. They did come up with some shocking results. A total of 305,339 adults aged between 21 to 90 were studied by scientists from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. They specifically collected data about:

Hearing problems caused by damaged bones of the inner ear or impaired auditory nerve pathway.

The real cause

They found that the prevalence of hearing loss was up to 82% higher in those having iron-deficiency anemia. They also offered a possible theory to support this data:


Iron deficiency reduces blood volume and thereby blood flow to several parts of our body decreases. Ischemic damaged caused by decreased blood flow to the labyrinthine artery may affect its blood carrying capacity to the inner ear and thus resulting in hearing loss.

Authors - Kathleen M. Schieffer, Cynthia H. Chuang.

Source - JAMA Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery by American Medical Association.