The Comparison Of Hearing Loss Among Diabetic And Non-Diabetic Patients

Introduction: The prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus is steadily increasing. This is a multi-systemic abnormality, causing side-effects which are mainly irreversible. Hearing loss is one of the common symptoms, and there are many studies, with contradictory results. Aim of this study was to compare the hearing loss among diabetic with non-diabetic patients. Material and Methods: In this study 50 diabetic patients were chosen randomly from those overt diabetic patients referred to the Diabetes clinic in Gorgan hospital northern Iran, 50 other patients who referred to the 5th Azar hospital, with any other ENT complaint were also randomly chosen as control group. The case and control groups were matched. Demographic questionnaires were filled for each subjects in case and control groups, and those with intervening factors were omitted from this study. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Results: In this study 66% and 34% of participants were men and women respectively. The age distribution of the patient were 15-75 years. The hearing loss among diabetic patients and non-diabetic subjects were 16% and 5% respectively, which showed that the diabetic patient has 3.2 times more possibility to acquire hearing problem. It was also shown, that there was a direct correlation between increasing age and hearing loss. More women are at risk, of getting hearing loss than men. The hearing loss also has a correlation with the duration of disease onset and the consumption of Glibanclamid. Conclusion: The careful periodical assessment of hearing loss, and the application of hearing facilities to improve the quality of diabetic patients life is recommended due to chronic and irreversible symptom of the disease.