A study on the incidence of Sensorineural hearing loss in patients with Diabetes mellitus

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of sensorineural hearing loss in Diabetes mellitus patients. Methods: The study was carried out on 50 Diabetes mellitus patients and an equal number of age and sex matched non-diabetic controls. Details of audiometry were recorded in the patients group as well as the control group. The Patients group also underwent HbA1C test to assess glycemic control. Results: The pure tone audiometry test revealed that 13 (26%) Diabetic cases were having mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss as against 4 (8%) in non-diabetic controls (p<0.05). Conclusions: It is concluded that the diabetic patients have significantly high incidence of sensorineural hearing loss when compared to non-diabetic control group of comparable age.