最近的内科医学年报《Annals of Internal medicine》报告了成年糖尿病人听力下降比非糖尿病人的风险要大，该结果不依赖于性别、年龄和民族人种的差异。
因此，糖尿病病人不仅要定期检查视力，眼底病变，还要定期检查听力。在听力轻微受损时，医生可以提供及时有效的帮助。
16-JUN-2008
Hearing Often Impaired in Adults with Diabetes
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - As well as endangering eyesight, diabetes can also impact hearing, a new study shows.
The researchers suggest people with diabetes should be routinely screened for hearing problems so that those affected can be offered hearing aids.
Dr. Kathleen E. Bainbridge at Social and Scientific Systems in Silver Spring, Maryland, and others evaluated data on 5140 individuals 20 to 69 years of age who underwent a hearing test in the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
In all, 399 of the participants reported having been diagnosed with diabetes, and 587 subjects were hearing impaired, the team reports in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
They found that 21 percent in the diabetes group and 9 percent in the non-diabetes group had reduced hearing at low and mid frequencies; the pattern was similar for high frequencies (54 percent vs 32 percent).
"The prevalence of hearing impairment was higher among individuals with diabetes in both sexes; all groups of race or ethnicity, education, and income-poverty ratio; and all age groups but the oldest (those 60 to 69 years)," Bainbridge and her associates report.
"In many cases of mild to moderate hearing loss, patients are not aware of what they cannot hear," notes Dr. Keiko Hirose at Washington University in St. Louis in a related editorial. "Thus, screening for hearing loss in individuals at risk could lead to interventions that would affect their ability to communicate, their productivity, and their safety."
SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, July 1, 2008.
