As people living with diabetes are at a greater risk of developing hearing loss, audiological tests to monitor auditory (hearing) function should be introduced into comprehensive packages of care provided by diabetes services.
The American Diabetes Association report, ‘Standards of medical care in diabetes – 2014’ recommends that hearing impairment be assessed and addressed as one of the common comorbid conditions that may complicate the management of diabetes.
| The Australian RCGP Microvascular disease risks does not includehearing loss as a risk | Renal (kidney) impairment and CKD Neuropathy (nerve damage)– peripheral, autonomic Retinopathy (damage to the eye) more HEAR |
Further research and evidence-based outcomes may support the introduction of indicators to identify hearing difficulties in the diabetes population. More HEAR
In one research paper, sensorineural hearing loss was more common in people living with diabetes than in the control nondiabetic patients, and severity of hearing loss seemed to correlate with progression of disease as reflected in serum creatinine. This may have been due to microangiopathic (small blood vessel) disease in the inner ear.
A review of the literature by these authors, and their study, suggests a moderate link between poor blood glucose control and progression of hearing loss.
Because audiologic data from patients with diabetes not experiencing hearing loss was not available, the exact impact of diabetes on hearing loss is still not clear.
However, this study does demonstrate that data mining can be used to identify poorly defined disease relationships and suggests that screening all patients with diabetes for hearing loss in a prospective manner may be useful for a clearer understanding of this disease process. More HEAR
The American Speech Language and Hearing Association comments that “building epidemiological evidence depends on a robust definition of a condition, so that results can be compared across studies.
For hearing impairment, however, no definitive definition has been established. Recently, using audiometric data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, investigators evaluated hearing impairment using high-frequency (3000-, 4000-, 6000-, and 8000-Hz) as well as low- or middle-frequency (500-, 1000-, and 2000-Hz) averages, at two levels of severity (>25 and >40 dB HL), in both the worse and better ear (Bainbridge, Hoffman, & Cowie, 2008).
The results demonstrated that the prevalence of hearing impairment depends on how the condition is defined, but a greater prevalence of hearing impairment was observed among adults with diagnosed diabetes than without, regardless of the definition used”
The data also suggest that people living with diabetes may experience hearing loss at earlier ages.
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