HEARING-LOSS IN DIABETICS

The relationship between diabetes and sensorineural hearing loss has b een disputed. This study compares 44 insulin-dependent diabetics with 38 age and sex matched controls. All had pure tone and speech audiomet ry performed, with any diabetic showing sensorineural deafness undergo ing stapedial reflex decay tests. In 14 diabetics stapedial reflex tes ts showed no tone decay in any patient, but seven showed evidence of r ecruitment. Analysis of variance showed the diabetics to be significan tly deafer than the control population. The hearing loss affected high frequencies in both sexes, but also low frequencies in the male. Spee ch discrimination scores showed no difference. Further analysis by sex showed the males to account for most of the differences. Analysis of the audiograms showed mostly a high tone loss. Finally duration of dia betes, insulin dosage and family history of diabetes were not found to have a significant effect on threshold.