A light gradient boosted machine model utilizing cardiovascular risk factors classified mild or greater hearing impairment (> 25 dB HL) with 80.1% accuracy.
Cross-Sectional (n=7,996)
Can machine learning models using cardiovascular risk factors accurately predict hearing loss thresholds and pure tone averages?
Machine learning models utilizing cardiovascular risk factors such as age, gender, blood pressure, and waist circumference can accurately predict hearing loss thresholds.
Hearing loss poses immense burden worldwide and early detection is crucial. The accurate models identify high-risk groups, enabling timely intervention to improve quality of life. The subtle changes in hearing often go unnoticed, presenting a challenge for early hearing loss detection. While machine learning shows promise, prior studies have not leveraged cardiovascular risk factors known to impact hearing. As hearing outcomes remain challenging to characterize associations, we evaluated a new approach to predict current hearing outcomes through machine learning models using cardiovascular risk factors. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2012-2018 data comprising audiometric tests and cardiovascular risk factors was utilized. Machine learning algorithms were trained to classify hearing impairment thresholds and predict pure tone average values. Key results showed light gradient boosted machine performing best in classifying mild or greater impairment (> 25 dB HL) with 80.1% accuracy. It also classified > 16 dB HL and > 40 dB HL thresholds, with accuracies exceeding 77% and 86% respectively. The study also found that CatBoost and Gradient Boosting performed well in classifying hearing loss thresholds, with test set accuracies around 0.79 and F1-scores around 0.79-0.80. A multi-layer neural network emerged as the top predictor of pure tone averages, achieving a mean absolute error of just 3.05 dB. Feature analysis identified age, gender, blood pressure and waist circumference as key associated factors. Findings offer a promising direction for a clinically applicable tool, personalized prevention strategies, and calls for prospective validation.
Nabavi et al. (Sat,) conducted a cross-sectional in Hearing loss (n=7,996). Machine learning models (LightGBM, MLNN) using cardiovascular risk factors was evaluated on Classification of mild or greater hearing impairment (> 25 dB HL). A light gradient boosted machine model utilizing cardiovascular risk factors classified mild or greater hearing impairment (> 25 dB HL) with 80.1% accuracy.