Peer-reviewed article

Determination of hearing threshold in children with and without type 1 diabetes mellitus: a case-control study in Northern Iran.

Fatemeh Nasrollahtabar, Fereshteh Bagheri, Hadis Ebrahimzadeh, Dariush Rohaniotaghsara, Hossein-Ali Nikbakht et al. · 20 Aug 2026

Abstract

PURPOSE: In children with early-onset Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM), complications of the disease can affect inner ear function, leading to hearing impairment, reduced motor performance, and balance disorder. However, few studies have evaluated its impact on hearing level. Therefore, this study evaluated hearing threshold in children with and without T1DM referred to Amirkola Children's Hospital in 2023. METHODS: This case-control study was conducted in 2023 on children aged 6-18 years who were referred to Amirkola Children's Hospital. The case group included children diagnosed with T1DM at least one year prior, while the control group consisted of healthy children. After final confirmation of T1DM by a pediatric endocrinologist and according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, participants were referred to the audiology unit of the hospital for hearing assessments after obtaining informed consent. Demographic information was collected, and tympanometry, auditory brainstem response (ABR), and pure-tone audiometry (PTA) were performed. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20, and a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: In this study, 41 children with T1DM and 44 control children were included. The case group comprised 23 girls (56.1%), while the control group included 34 girls (77.3%). The mean duration of T1DM in the case group was 4.78 years. Comparison of the mean ABR results for the left ear revealed significant differences between the case and control groups in the latency of waves I, III, V latencies and the interwave intervals between I-V waves (P <0.05 for all). Similar significant differences were observed in the right ear for waves III, V, and the interwave intervals between I-V waves (P < 0.05 for all). A weak but statistically significant correlation was observed between diabetes duration and the I-III interwave interval in the right ear (r = 0.31, P = 0.044). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that T1DM may be associated with auditory abnormalities in children. Hearing impairment in children with T1DM is related to the duration of the disease and possibly to the level of metabolic control.