A Study of Assessment of Auditory Dysfunction in Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background: Diabetes is associated with various macrovascular and microvascular complications. Current data suggest both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are associated with sensorineural hearing loss as a microvascular complication. On the other hand, data on prediabetes causing sensorineural hearing loss is limited and not conclusive. In this study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of auditory dysfunction in type 2 diabetes mellitus and prediabetes. It also aimed to correlate the association between auditory dysfunction and various clinical and laboratory parameters. Methodology: The study was conducted at the tertiary care hospital in Delhi aimed to assess auditory dysfunction in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus. 89 subjects were included in the study after screening and consent. Out of 89 subjects, 45 were categorized as pre-diabetes and 44 were diabetes. Clinical and laboratory parameters used to detect macro and microvascular complications and auditory dysfunction assessed by using pure tone audiometry (PTA) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAES). Results: Out of 45 prediabetes subjects, one subject (2.22%) had sensorineural hearing loss on pure tone audiometry and out of 44 diabetes patients five (11.36%) had sensorineural hearing loss on pure tone audiometry. Similar results also obtained on DPOAE, one prediabetic subject (2.22%) had auditory dysfunction on DPOAE, five diabetic patients (11.36%) had auditory dysfunction on DPOAE. On DPOAE higher frequencies were more affected in both prediabetes and diabetes patients. Out of the 44 diabetics in our study, seven (15.91%) were found to have diabetic retinopathy; six (13.64%) had diabetic nephropathy; thirteen (29.55%) were diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy and four (9.09%) had evidence of coronary artery disease. Conclusion: In this study, auditory dysfunction in diabetes patients was significantly higher than prediabetic subjects. In diabetic patients prevalence of auditory dysfunction was lower than the existing literature probably due to lower sample size and sampling methods. In the study diabetic patients who had deranged BMI, various associated microvascular complications associated with diabetes, and poor glycaemic control (higher HbA1c) had abnormal PTA and abnormal DPOAE. Further studies with a larger sample size are required to establish the association between prediabetes and auditory dysfunction.