Hearing impairment in diabetic patients

Original article

English

Ezeddin Salem El Tabal1, Ian Macenzie2

1) ENT Department at Lewisham University Hospital (London, UK)
2) University of Manchester, UK

JMJ Vol.3 No.1 (March) 2004: 59-63

Abstract

This study was an observational case-control study on the effect of diabetes mellitus on hearing thresholds, in which diabetic subjects and control groups of 152 subjects were matched for age, sex, type, method of treatment, duration and degree of control, and. Our study group was divided into two groups; diabetic patients with neuropathy and diabetic patients without neuropathy. The results show a strong relationship between diabetes mellitus and hearing. The diabetic group were found to be more hearing impaired than the control group in both ears. Those diabetic patients with neuropathy had high hearing thresholds than those without neuropathy. Gender and method of treatment were found to have no significant effect on hearing. A significant correlation was found between age, type, duration of diabetes mellitus and hearing threshold. Type 2 diabetic patients with neuropathy were found to have significantly high hearing thresholds, but no significant difference was shown between diabetic patients without neuropathy and those controls. It was found that well-controlled diabetic patients as estimated by HbA lc, had better hearing thresholds than those poorly controlled patients. It is concluded that there are several factors that may present a risk to affect development of hearing impairment in diabetes mellitus disease. These are age, neuropathy, duration, type, and the degree of control.

Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Hearing impairment, Glycoside haemoglobin

Link/DOI: http://www.jmj.org.ly/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1305