Long-term subjective loneliness in adults after hearing loss treatment.

Objective: While hearing loss is associated with loneliness, the long term impact of hearing loss interventions remains unknown. We investigated levels of loneliness in adults at baseline, 6-months, 1-year and 5-years after receiving a hearing aid (HA) or cochlear implant (CI). Design: In this 5-year follow-up to the Studying Multiple Outcomes after Aural Rehabilitative Treatment study, participants completed the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale at baseline, 6-months, 1-year, and 5-year time points. Generalized estimating equations modeled the population average UCLA score over time. Study Sample: Analytic cohort of 115 participants (74% of original 156) 50 years or older who received a HA or CI at baseline and completed at least one follow up visit. Results: Loneliness scores were not different at 5 years versus baseline for HA users. CI users showed significantly reduced loneliness at 6-months and 1-year from baseline and with no significant difference at 5 years. Conclusion: Over 5 years, we observed no increase in loneliness from baseline in a cohort of adults receiving HAs and CIs. Short-term reduction in loneliness in CI users was demonstrated. Future randomized trials are needed to definitively assess the impact of treated versus untreated hearing loss on loneliness.

A Plasma α-Tocopherome Can Be Identified from Proteins Associated with Vitamin E Status in School-Aged Children of Nepal.

BACKGROUND: The term vitamin E describes a family of 8 vitamers, 1 of which is α-tocopherol, that is essential for human health. Vitamin E status remains largely unknown in low-income countries because of the complexity and cost of measurement. Quantitative proteomics may offer an approach for identifying plasma proteins for assessing vitamin E status in these populations. OBJECTIVE: To improve options for vitamin E status assessment, we sought to detect and quantify a set of plasma proteins associated with α- and γ-tocopherol concentrations in a cohort of 500 rural Nepalese children aged 6-8 y and, based on nutrient-protein associations, to predict the prevalence of vitamin E deficiency (α-tocopherol <12 µmol/L). METHODS: Study children were born to mothers enrolled in an earlier antenatal micronutrient trial in Sarlahi District, Nepal. Plasma α- and γ-tocopherol concentrations were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Plasma aliquots were depleted of 6 high-abundance proteins, digested with trypsin, labeled with isobaric mass tags, and assessed for relative protein abundance by tandem mass spectrometry. Linear mixed-effects models were used to evaluate the association between α-tocopherol status and relative protein abundance and to predict deficiency. RESULTS: We quantified 982 plasma proteins in >10% of all child samples, of which 119 correlated with α-tocopherol (false discovery rate, q < 0.10). Proteins were primarily involved in lipid transport, coagulation, repair, innate host defenses, neural function, and homeostasis. Six proteins [apolipoprotein (apo)C-III; apoB; pyruvate kinase, muscle; forkhead box 04; unc5 homolog C; and regulator of G-protein signaling 8] explained 71% of the variability in plasma α-tocopherol, predicting an in-sample population prevalence of vitamin E deficiency of 51.4% (95% CI: 46.4%, 56.3%) compared with a measured prevalence of 54.8%. Plasma γ-tocopherol was associated with 12 proteins (q < 0.10), 2 of which (apoC-III and Misato 1) explained 20% of its variability. CONCLUSIONS: In this undernourished population of children in South Asia, quantitative proteomics identified a large plasma α-tocopherome from which 6 proteins predicted the prevalence of vitamin E deficiency. The findings illustrate that protein biomarkers, once absolutely quantified, can potentially predict micronutrient deficiencies in populations. The maternal micronutrient supplementation trial from which data were derived as a follow-up activity was registered with clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00115271.