Study: Incidence of hearing loss following COVID-19 among young adults in South Korea: a nationwide cohort study . Image Credit: Jaromir Chalabala / Shutterstock A major study finds that COVID-19 triples the risk of hearing loss in young adults, highlighting an urgent need to investigate the long-term effects of the virus on auditory health amid concerning new evidence of sudden sensorineural hearing loss among those infected. In a recent study published in the journal eClinicalMedicine , researchers from South Korea conducted a population-based study among young adults to determine the association between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and hearing loss, including sudden sensorineural hearing loss.
Background The COVID-19 pandemic affected over 775 million individuals worldwide and resulted in over seven million deaths. The post-infection sequelae, commonly known as long coronavirus disease (long COVID), continues to impact a significant portion of the individuals who recovered from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. Furthermore, the symptoms of long COVID impact various organ systems, such as the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, pulmonary, renal, and neural systems.
Studies have reported cases of sensorineural hearing loss and sudden sensorineural hearing loss associated with COVID-19, which suggests an impact of COVID-19 on the brainstem. This also indicates that hearing loss could be one of the non-specific COVID-19 symptoms .