ABSTRACT
Objective: This study was designed to compare the prevalence of hearing abnormalities between the patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and an age and gender-matched control group without OA.
Material and methods: Thirty-six consecutive patients (72 ears) admitting the outpatient clinics of physical therapy and rehabilitation with the diagnosis of hand and knee osteoarthritis according to ACR criteria and Kellgren-Lawrence grading system, and age and sex-matched 30 healthy volunteers (60 ears), were included in the study. Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) values between 1 kHz- 4 kHz, tympanometric examination results, stapes reflex values, speech reception threshold (SRT) and speech discrimination (SD) values, pure-tone values between 250 and 8000 Hz and high-frequency values at 10000 Hz, 12500 Hz and 16000 Hz were analyzed. Statistical comparisons between both groups were performed using chi-square test and Mann Whitney- U test.
Results: The mean age of 36 patients with OA and 30 healthy controls was 53.78 ± 6.12 and 53.30 ± 4.48 years respectively. Mean duration of osteoarthritis was 2.89±1.68 years. In the evaluation of hearing frequencies of the patients between 4000 and 12500 Hz, pure tone average results and tympanometric examination results, a statistically significant difference was found relative to the control group (p<0.05). There was no statistically significantly difference between DPOAE values of the groups.
Conclusion: Our current study demonstrates strong evidence for sensorineural hearing loss in patients with OA.
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