Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Background: Eye, kidney, cranial nerve, peripheral nerve, ear, and vascular system disorders reside among the chronic complications of diabetes mellitus. The relationship between Diabetes mellitus and hearing impairment remains controversial. Hence; the present study was undertaken for assessing prevalence of sub-clinical hearing loss in children with type 1 diabetes. Materials & methods: A total of 35 subjects with between age group of 6-17 years with confirmed diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes with average disease duration of more than 2 years were included as study group. Another set of 35 age and gender matched subjects were enrolled as healthy controls. Complete audiological assessment was done in all the patients by pure tone audiometry (PTA) and otoacoustic emission (OAE). Data of study were analysed statically and compared with literature. Detailed demographic and clinical details of all the patients were obtained. Audiological assessment was done in a sound proof room. All the results were compiled in Microsoft excel sheet and were analysed by SPSS software. Results: Subclinical hearing loss was found to be present in 16.67 percent of the patients (5 patients) of the study group. None of the patients of the control group presented with sub clinical hearing loss. Non-significant results were obtained while assessing the correlation of sub-clinical hearing loss with duration of diabetes in diabetic patients. Significant results were obtained while comparing the glycaemic profile of the patients with and without subclinical hearing loss. Conclusion: Diabetic children are associated with significantly higher risk of hearing loss. Key words: Diabetes, hearing loss.