title: Association Between Hearing Impairment and Albuminuria With or Without Diabetes Mellitus.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Few studies have evaluated the accurate association between hearing loss (HL) and albuminuria in patients with or without diabetes mellitus (DM). The aim of our study was to identify the clinical effects of albuminuria on HL with or without DM.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study included 9,762 patients from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2011 and 2013. Participants were divided into 4 groups based on DM and urine albumin/creatinine ratio levels: group 1 included participants with neither DM nor albuminuria, group 2 included participants without DM and with albuminuria, group 3 included patients with DM and without albuminuria, and group 4 included patients with both DM and albuminuria. The low- or mid-frequency and high-frequency, and average hearing threshold values were obtained.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 7,508, 545, 1,325, and 384 participants in groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that the 3 hearing thresholds in group 1 were the lowest and those in group 4 were the highest among the 4 groups. No significant differences were observed in those thresholds between groups 2 and 3. Group 4 was associated with HL compared with the other groups, but moderate to severe HL was not associated with DM or albuminuria.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The presence of albuminuria was associated with a modest effect on hearing thresholds regardless of presence of DM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Da Jung
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Taehoon
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Hak-Geon
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyu-Yup
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Lee
keywords: Albuminuria; Diabetes Mellitus; Hearing Loss; Hearing Threshold