Auditory acuity in type II diabetes mellitus patients vs healthy individuals: a comparative study

Abstract

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> There is an unprecedented rise in the number of patients being diagnosed with type II diabetes mellitus. The end organ damage associated with uncontrolled diabetes is well-known and has been the focus of attention of the treating physician. Less dramatic consequences such as subtle hearing loss and cochlear damage is usually the neglected part of the management of these patients. We conducted this study to compare the degree of auditory loss in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and healthy individuals of same age with the help of pure tone audiometry.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> This was a case control study in which 130 type II diabetis patients (Group A) and 130 normoglycemic individuals (Group B) were included. Pure tone audiometry was done in all the patients. Cochlear response to audiometry, air conduction and bone conduction of both the ears were determined. </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Patients with diabetes were found to be affected by sensori-nerural hearing loss more commonly than healthy individuals and the difference was found to be statistically highly significant (p=0.0001). Also there was statistically significant difference in threshold of air and bone conduction in both the groups (p=0.0001).</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Type II diabetes mellitus is found to be associated with increased incidence of auditory loss. ENT specialists need to be aware of possibility of subtle hearing loss in these patients so as to be able to detect it at an early stage and prevent progression of hearing loss to a significant level.</p>