Medication Use in Adults with and without Hearing Impairment.

The objective of this study was to determine whether hearing ability in adults is associated with medication use in general, the use of specific types of medication, or polypharmacy. In this exploratory study, data of the National Longitudinal Study on Hearing (NL-SH; n = 2,160) were used. In total, 62% of the participants reported using any medication in the past 28 days. Hearing ability in noise, as determined with an online digit-triplet speech-in-noise test, was significantly associated with (1) medication acting on the alimentary tract and metabolism (including diabetes and acid-related disorders), (2) use of calcium blockers, and (3) medication used for sensory organs.