A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF AUDITORY ANALYSIS IN NON INSULIN DEPENDENT DIABETIC PATIENTS.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) comprises a group of common metabolic disorders that share a phenotype of hyperglycemia. Diabetes mellitus can be broadly classified as adult onset diabetes mellitus (type II) and juvenile onset diabetes mellitus (type I). The current study aimed to establish the relationship between age, duration, severity and complication of diabetes to the changes in hearing threshold and also to find out the prevalence of hearing impairment in diabetic population. The subjects included in the study were 100 diabetic patients (50 Males and 50 Females) in the age range of 30 to 60 years who served as experimental group and 100 healthy age and sex matched candidates served as control group. All the subjects had undergone pure tone audiometry evaluations and the hearing threshold at different frequencies was compared between both groups. The results showed that hearing threshold in experimental group was higher than the control group. Also, the comparison within the diabetic group on age and duration of diabetes mellitus and hearing threshold showed a significant difference with increased hearing impairment with increase in age and duration of diabetes mellitus. Hence the study concluded with direct correlation between diabetes and hearing impairment and the DM patients were advised to undergo periodic audiological evaluations and management.