Less education and blue collar employment are related to longer time to admission of patients presenting with unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss.
OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To investigate the relation between demographic characteristics and time to admission following unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL). STUDY DESIGN: Prospective observational study. METHODS: All patients with unilateral SSNHL in our departmental database (June 1, 2006-June 31, 2008) were studied. Data on their age, gender, marital status, household density, educational status, occupation, time to admission, and audiologic findings were retrieved from their medical records and compared. The study cohort was divided into two groups according to occupation, blue collar or white collar, and years of academic education. A comparative analysis between multiple variables and occupational groups and a multivariate analysis were conducted. RESULTS: Of the cohort aged 24 to 78 years, 46% were categorized as white collar. Within no more than 3 days from the first presenting symptom of SSNHL, 71.7% of the white collar group were admitted, as compared to 29.5% of the blue collar group. Multivariate analysis for late admission (>3 days) end-point prediction showed that lower education level was associated with a later admission time (odds ratio 0.15, 95% confidence interval 0.03-0.74; P = .02), even after adjusting for confounding factors (e.g., degree of hearing loss). CONCLUSIONS: Less educated individuals or blue collar workers who suffer a unilateral SSNHL tend to seek medical help later compared to more highly educated or white collar workers.
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机译：目的/假设：调查单侧突然感觉神经性听力损失（SSNHL）后人口统计学特征与入院时间之间的关系。研究设计：前瞻性观察研究。方法：我们对2006年6月1日至2008年6月31日我科数据库中所有单侧SSNHL患者进行了研究。从他们的病历中检索出有关他们的年龄，性别，婚姻状况，家庭密度，教育状况，职业，入院时间和听觉检查结果的数据，并进行比较。根据职业，蓝领或白领以及受过大学教育的程度将研究人群分为两组。进行了多变量和职业群体之间的比较分析和多变量分析。结果：在24至78岁的队列中，有46％被归类为白领。在首次出现SSNHL症状后的三天内，白领组的入院率为71.7％，而蓝领组为29.5％。延迟入学（> 3天）终点预测的多变量分析表明，即使在对混杂因素进行调整之后，较低的教育水平也与入学时间较晚有关（赔率0.15，95％置信区间0.03-0.74; P = .02）。因素（例如，听力下降的程度）。结论：与受过高等教育的白领工人相比，受过教育的个人或遭受单方面SSNHL的蓝领工人往往会在以后寻求医疗帮助。
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