Hearing threshold in patients with diabetes mellitus

Area of Science:

• Otolaryngology
• Endocrinology
• Audiology

Background:

• Diabetes mellitus is a systemic disease with potential microvascular complications.
• Hearing impairment is an emerging complication of diabetes, affecting various frequencies.
• Early detection of hearing loss in diabetic individuals is crucial for management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and compare hearing thresholds between diabetic patients and healthy controls.
• To analyze the impact of diabetes duration, control, and complications on hearing loss.
• To identify specific patterns of hearing impairment in diabetic populations.

Main Methods:

• Pure tone audiometry was used to assess hearing thresholds in 30 diabetic patients and 30 healthy controls under 50 years old.
• Diabetic patients were stratified by age, disease duration, complications, and glycemic control.
• Exclusion criteria included otological and other metabolic diseases to ensure study focus.

Main Results:

• Diabetic patients demonstrated significantly poorer hearing thresholds than non-diabetic controls.
• All age groups with diabetes exhibited significant high-frequency hearing loss compared to controls.
• Poorly controlled and complicated diabetes correlated with significant high-frequency hearing loss.

Conclusions:

• Diabetes is associated with a higher prevalence of hearing loss, especially in high frequencies.
• Glycemic control and diabetes complications are critical factors influencing hearing impairment.
• The duration of diabetes did not show a direct relationship with the severity of hearing loss.