Resident Physician University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Objective: During the recent pandemic sudden hearing loss, vertigo and tinnitus have been reported as clinical manifestations of COVID-19 infection or a side effect of the COVID-19 vaccination. The aim of our study was to investigate the likelihood of the aforementioned otological symptoms between COVID-19 + unvaccinated, and COVID-19 negative (−) vaccinated patients, within the first 8 weeks after diagnosis of COVID-19 or after the vaccine.
Study Design: Retrospective Longitudinal study using 1:1 greedy nearest-neighbor propensity score matching based on age, gender, race, and ethnicity.
Setting: TriNetX Research Network.
Patients: January 1, 2020 through September 2, 2021 (date of data access).
Interventions: N/A
Main Outcome Measures: Sudden hearing loss, acute vestibular disorders and tinnitus.
Results: A total of 1,078,487 patients met our criteria for the COVID-19 (−) vaccinated cohort, and 383,907 for the COVID-19 + unvaccinated one. After matching we found a higher likelihood of vertigo OR 3.8 (p < 0.001), tinnitus OR 1.2 (p < 0.01) among those COVID-19 + unvaccinated patients when compared to those COVID-19 (−) vaccinated. There was no difference in the likelihood of sudden hearing loss between groups.
Conclusions: Our study suggests there is a higher likelihood of developing vertigo and tinnitus related to a COVID-19 infection when compared to being vaccinated against the disease. This study is the first to study this by utilizing data from approximately 50 large healthcare organizations using a large sample size and a matched design. Further research is needed to investigate the mechanism and long-term effects in the quality of life of patients who develop these conditions.
*Professional Practice Gap & Educational Need: Understand the likelihood of a patient experiencing sudden hearing loss, vertigo and tinnitus after diagnosis of COVID-19 or after being vaccinated.
*Learning Objective: Understand the association of those symptoms and COVID-19.
*Desired Result: Increase awareness of ontological symptoms and COVID-19 and future practices.