Hearing Loss Related with Type 2 Diabetes in an Elderly Population

OBJECTIVE: Considering that both hearing loss and Type 2 diabetes (DM2) are significant health issues, it is worthwhile to examine the relationship between the two. After evaluating the existing literature, it was evident that there have not been sufficient prospective studies about hearing loss and DM2 that include elderly participants. Therefore, the aim of this study was to focus on and evaluate the interaction between DM2 and hearing loss in an elderly population. MATERIALS and METHODS: The current study included 93 DM2 subjects, 65-89 years of age, as well as a control Group of 90 non-diabetic subjects, aged 65-85 years of aged, who were matched to the DM2 subjects by age and sex. RESULTS: The current investigation produced five major findings. The diabetics had higher thresholds for all frequencies, except 0.25 kHz, compared to the controls. Although there were significant differences at low frequencies, such as 0.5 and 1 kHz, the differences were most pronounced at 2, 4, and 8 kHz. The thresholds for speech reception were significantly higher in the diabetics than in the controls. Also, there were no side differences between the right and left ears in the diabetics or the controls, and the diabetics had lower speech discrimination scores than the controls. CONCLUSION: Diabetes is a complex, systemic disease that can affect multiple organs and physiological functions, on molecular and biochemical levels. The current investigation showed that elderly DM2 subjects had poorer hearing levels when compared with age and sex matched non-DM2 subjects.