European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Few of the studies advocate that cigarette smoking is highly associated with the development of hearing loss both Conductive and Sensorineural type. However, comprehensive audiological evaluation on smokers has been scarce. Thus there is an extremely important need to assess the hearing status in smokers and to view pathophysiology of auditory system in greater detail.
Objectives: To study the incidence of hearing loss in rural population by pure tone audiometry and to study the effect of smoking on hearing loss.
Methodology:, This is Cross sectional study 500 people fulfilling Inclusion/Exclusion criteria who gave their consent  were included in the study. The population included in the study was from the rural area of various age groups in Hoskote and were screened for hearing loss. Their detailed history was taken and those having ENT disease, head injury, history of ototoxic medication intake, history of noise exposure were excluded from the study. The technique of pure tone audiometry is the based on ASHA method. All the individuals were subjected to DPOAE screening.
Conclusion: In our study, mild sensorineural hearing loss was more significant in smokers. Cigarette smoking is clearly evident to effect on cochlear which was measured through a decreased response in distortion product otoacoustic emissions ( DPOAE).