Fig. 2

Association between log-transformed creatinine-corrected BEX and hearing loss in subgroups. Models were adjusted for age (20–40 and 40–60 years), sex (male and female), BMI categories (< 25, 25-29.9, and ≥ 30 kg/m²), education levels (less than high school, high school, and college or above), race/ethnicity (Mexican American, Other Hispanic, Non-Hispanic White Non-Hispanic Black, Other Race - Including Multi-Racial), marital status (married, widowed, divorced, separated, never married, living with partner), PIR (< 1.3, 1.3–3.5, > 3.5), smoking status (no and yes), drinking status(no and yes), diabetes (no and yes), hypertension (no and yes), work noise (no and yes), recreational noise (no and yes), firearm noise(no and yes), and year cycle (2003–2004, 2011–2012, and 2015–2016). P values for interaction were estimated by adding a product term of each stratifying variable and BEX in the main model and assessing it via a Wald test. Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratio; PIR, family income-poverty ratio