Diabetes mellitus is a multisystem disorder. There have been various reports regarding the incidence of hearing impairment in diabetes mellitus. An audiological study was performed in 72 patients with diabetes mellitus, comprising 74 persons as the control group from January 1990 to July 1992, in order to establish whether there was a relationship among the age of the patients, duration, complication and control of diabetes to changes in the hearing threshold. The results were as follows : 1) Old-age patients of diabetes show sensorineural type, which is significant high frequency hearing loss, as compared to control persons(p<0.05). 2) The incidence of hearing loss in diabetic patients appears to be greater compared with that in non-diabetic persons. 3) Hearing loss was bilateral in 81.6% of diabetic patients and according to the audiograms, the gradual form of hearing loss is the most frequent, with 47.4%, while next is the abrupt form and than the flat form. 4) There is no relationship between duration and control of diabetes to hearing loss. 5) Complicated diabetic patients have significant high frequency hearing loss as compared with non-diabetic persons(p<0.01).
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