Prevalence of Hearing Loss in Poorly Controlled Diabetics of Ten Years Duration

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common systemic metabolic disease with increasing worldwide prevalence. It has been linked to a higher risk of visual impairment and hearing loss, with possible mechanisms that including micro-vascular disease, audio neuropathy & oxidative1stress.
Objective:To determine the relation between uncontrolled diabetes and hearing impairment in population of AK CMH Muzaffarabad.

Methodology :This descriptive cross sectional study was done inmedicine department CMH Muzaffarabad during  the period ofDecember  1-12-2018 to May 31-05-2019. This study was conducted on  150 diabeticpatients. All patients were examined properly after taking history for autonomic neuropathies specially hearing and visual impairment.. Tuning fork tests with 512 Hz tuning fork were done to check the hearing impairment weather it is  conductive or neuropathic deafness. Pure tone audiometry was done at different frequencies to check for hearing impairment at different frequencies. Data was entered and analyzed in SPSS 23.

Results: In this study, there were 80 (53.3%) male and 70 (46.6%) female.  The mean ages 55.84 +11.49 years. The mean duration of diabetes, HBA1C, Urea and creatinine was 12.12+5.03, 5.82 +0.70, 30.49+7.81 &30.49+7.81. 104 (69.3%) had good control diabetes and 46 (30.7%) patients had poor control diabetes. Data were classified by the degree of diabetic retinopathy 39 (26%) patients had no diabetic retinopathy, 61 (40.6%) had mild non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy, 32 (21.3%) had moderate non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy & only 18 (12%) had combined severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR).

Conclusion: The study found that diabetes was associated with a slightly higher risk of mild or severe hearing loss. Furthermore, having diabetes for a longer period of time was linked to a higher risk of worse hearing loss.