Jia-Ying Pan,1,* Yuan Chen,1,* Zhi-He Lin,1 Bo Lv,1 Lei Chen,2 Shao-Yan Feng1 

1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurosurgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Shao-Yan Feng, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, No. 52, Meihua East Road, Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai, 519000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-13626927889, Email fshaoy@mail.sysu.edu.cn Lei Chen, Department of Neurosurgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-13902878497, Email clzzzz@126.com; chenlei63@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Objective: Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL) is a representative human sensory impairment, few studies have paid attention to the correlation between the Triglyceride-Glucose (TyG) index and SNHL to date. We conducted this analysis to elucidate the correlation between the TyG index and pure tone hearing thresholds among US adults.
Methods: Our analysis included 1226 adults (age range: 20 to 69 years old) from the 2015– 2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data. TyG index was scored into three quartiles. Weighted univariate analysis, weighted multivariate linear regression analyses as well as smooth curve fittings evaluated the associations between TyG index and pure tone hearing thresholds.
Results: In the multiple regression analysis, the second tertile of TyG index was negatively associated with high-frequency hearing thresholds shifts. Furthermore, the non-linear relationships between TyG index and speech-frequency and high-frequency hearing thresholds were identified by smooth curve fittings. After adjusting for potential confounders, the fitted smooth curves were approximately U-shaped, and the two-segment linear regression models were constructed to calculate their inflection points.
Conclusion: Our findings suggested that the TyG index was nearly U-shaped association with speech-frequency and high-frequency hearing thresholds. These results may imply the importance of maintaining a balanced TyG index in health management.

Keywords: Sensorineural Hearing Loss, triglyceride glucose index, cross-sectional study, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey