Does hearing loss affect the risk of involvement in a motor vehicle crash? EDITORIAL COMMENT

The Journal of Transport and Health recently published a paper (Dow et al., 2022) asking whether hearing loss affects the risk of involvement in a motor vehicle crash. The authors conclude that "the evidence does not support a relationship between hearing impairment and the risk of a motor vehicle crash. " This comment challenges this conclusion. It argues that the paper does not rely on the most informative findings in two of the four studies it bases its conclusion on. When the results of the four studies are formally synthesised by means of meta-analysis, it is found that the relative risk of crash involvement associated with hearing loss is 1.13 (CI 95: 1.05; 1.21).