Nakonechnyi A. Yu., Marushchak M. I.

ANALYSIS OF RISK FACTORS FOR HEARING LOSS AND THE PROGRESSION OF HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN PATIENTS WITH COMORBID TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS

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About the author:

Nakonechnyi A. Yu., Marushchak M. I.

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CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE

Type of article:

Scientific article

Annotation:

Scientific evidence confirms that type 2 diabetes mellitus is an independent and clinically significant risk factor for hearing loss. Despite the growing number of publications, most existing studies assess the association between type 2 diabetes and hearing loss in isolation, without taking into account the combined effect of comorbid conditions. The aim of the study was to analyse pure-tone audiometry results in patients with comorbid type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), obesity and arterial hypertension (AH), to establish their correlation with clinical and functional parameters, and to identify threshold values for the progression of hearing loss. The study involved 66 patients with T2DM who were receiving inpatient treatment. The study groups comprised a group with T2DM without obesity or AH (n=18), a group with T2DM and obesity (n=14), and a group of patients with T2DM, obesity and AH (n=34). Hearing function was assessed using pure-tone threshold audiometry with a clinical dual-channel Auditus A1 audiometer. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica 13.0 software. It was found that in patients with T2DM, the hearing threshold increases symmetrically and progressively in a statistically significant manner (p<0.001 for all frequencies) as the burden of comorbidities (obesity and hypertension) increases, with the most pronounced changes occurring in the high-frequency range. In the population of patients with T2DM, the high-frequency mean audiometric threshold (an early marker of cochlear damage) is significantly strongly associated with hypertension (r=0.85) and obesity (r=0.70), whereas HbA1c correlates most strongly with the integral measure of the average threshold at the main frequencies (r=0.73). HDL-cholesterol shows an inverse (protective) correlation with the integral measures of hearing. ROC analysis within a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus shows that it is the lipid profile parameters – total cholesterol (AUC=0.79, cut-off >5.88 mmol/l) and HDL-C (AUC=0.75, threshold <0.95 mmol/l) – best predict the progression of hearing loss from mild to moderate severity.

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Bibliography:

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Publication of the article:

«Bulletin of problems biology and medicine», 2026 Issue 3, 182, 314-320 pages, index UDC 616.28-008.14:616.379-008.64-06

DOI:

10.29254/2077-4214-2026-3-182-314-320