Prevalence of hearing loss among Saudi type 2 diabetic patients.

Objective: To compare hearing impairment and audiometric shapes associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with an age-matched control group in the Saudi population.

Methods: This is an observational case-control study at a tertiary academic referral center. We recruited 196 individuals (age; 29-69 years) attending the Department of Otolaryngology, King Abdulaziz University Hospital between January 2005 to December 2009, and grouped them into T2DM (n=109) and control (n=87) groups.