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Many of the side effects of Type 2 diabetes are well known, like kidney damage, eyesight damage, foot problems and oral health issues.
New research published in Diabetes Metabolism Research and Reviews reveals that there is one more risk that patients with Type 2 diabetes need to be wary of: hearing loss.
“Moderate-to-severe hearing loss… affects nearly one in four adults with diabetes, representing a significant, yet under-recognized, complication,” warns the study.
“Crucially, this sensory impairment is not merely an audiometric finding, but a functionally disabling condition that impairs communication, increases social isolation and accelerates cognitive decline.”
More Than Twice As Likely
Researchers analyzed data from 29 studies involving more than 17,000 adults, most of whom had Type 2 diabetes or prediabetes. The research suggested that these groups were more than twice as likely to experience clinically significant hearing loss.
Type 2 diabetes can be managed by lifestyle changes and medication, but when the condition goes unmanaged, long-term problems can arise.
“Managing [Type 2 diabetes] can be challenging—you must make several decisions every day for it,” writes the Cleveland Clinic.
As part of this management, study authors are now recommending that regular audiometric screening be integrated into standard diabetic care. Looking out for hearing loss before it becomes severe can save patients’ hearing down the road.
Early Detection and Prevention
“Early detection through systematic screening could facilitate timely intervention, offering a crucial opportunity to prevent progression and significantly improve communicative function and overall quality of life for individuals living with diabetes.”
However, the study notes that there is particular urgency to integrate audiometric care into the lives of young adults and those living in middle-to-low-income areas, two groups where regular audiometric screening is less common, leaving patients with diabetes more susceptible. Study authors revealed to Newsweek that they found diabetes may be driving hearing loss well before what would be expected by aging alone, making screening in younger groups that much more crucial.
In fact, adults under 60-years-old face three times the odds of serious hearing loss compared to their non-diabetic peers.
“The key point is that early detection matters—catching hearing loss before it becomes severe means people can be fitted with the right support sooner and avoid the compounding effects of undetected impairment, like social withdrawal and difficulty managing their diabetes care because they can’t hear instructions well,” lead study author Mehwish Nisar, MD, PhD, AFHEA, a postdoctoral research fellow and affiliate of the University of Queensland Centre for Hearing Research (CHEAR) told Newsweek.
The findings of this study suggest that hearing loss is a much greater risk for people with diabetes than once believed. As a less commonly monitored side effect, the risk did not become clear until this date was further evaluated.
An Underestimated Burden
“Part of what motivated our review was that previous studies lumped together all severities of hearing loss, including very mild, subclinical changes, which may have understated how much of this burden is actually clinically significant and disability,” Nisar told Medical News Today.
“Hearing loss has never been systematically built into those care protocols, so it’s essentially fallen through the cracks—not because the biological link isn’t real, but because it hasn’t been prioritized or measured with the same rigor,” she emphasized.
This new research hopes to stop this serious side effect from slipping through the cracks, bringing awareness to the risk of hearing loss in patients with Type 2 diabetes and encouraging regular screening to stop any potential hearing loss in its tracks.
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