Hearing Loss in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

SummaryThe relationship between diabetes mellitus and hearing loss is described as ‘controversial’ in the literature, given that in the clinical realm many patients present dysacusis while others do not.Aimthis study aims to investigate the relationship between hearing loss and diabetes mellitus and add to the knowledge being developed in this area.Study designcross-sectional clinical trial.Materials and methodin our study we analyzed the medical charts of 50 adult patients of both genders, aged above 45 years, and diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, seen in our institution in 2006 and 2007, and compared them to the charts of 50 metabolic disease-free individuals.Resultsthis study found statistically significant worse audiometric thresholds among patients with diabetes mellitus when compared to patients in the control group.Conclusionthe results identified in this study point to a correlation between hearing loss and diabetes mellitus. This possibility should therefore be further investigated by health care workers providing care to patients with diabetes mellitus, in the form of closer follow-up on the auditory health of this patient group.