Hearing health should be included in good diabetes management, says the Better Hearing Institute (BHI). Studies show that people with diabetes are about twice as likely to develop hearing loss. Yet hearing tests are frequently overlooked in routine diabetes care.

Hearing depends on small blood vessels and nerves in the inner ear. Researchers theorize that over time high blood glucose levels can damage these blood vessels and nerves, diminishing the ability to hear. Based on the findings of a meta-analysis conducted on the link between diabetes and hearing loss, Professor Hirohito Sone of the Department of Internal Medicine, Niigata University School of Medicine, Niigata, Japan, believes that hearing health should be included in good diabetes management. “Our findings support routine hearing screenings for people with diabetes starting at an earlier age than for people without the disease,” Professor Sone says. “This is very important from a preventive healthcare perspective. We want to stop untreated hearing loss from leading to other health problems, like depression or dementia, which would make the diabetes burden even greater.”

The meta-analysis, which looked at 13 studies, found that people with diabetes were 2.15 times more likely to have hearing loss. When broken down by age, it found that younger individuals were at an even greater risk. Those older than 60 with diabetes were 1.58 times more likely to have hearing loss, while the risk for those 60 and younger with the disease was 2.61 times higher. In a 2012 study, Yaremchuk and colleagues at Henry Ford Hospital found that women between the ages of 60 and 75 with well-controlled diabetes had better hearing than women whose diabetes was poorly controlled. For more information about this topic, please visit our website and click on “Blog”.

Content provided by Better Hearing Institute