Prevalence of hearing impairment among Gout patients

Abstract

Background:

The accumulation of uric acid crystals in the joints, which causes inflammation and discomfort, results in gout, a kind of arthritis. A limited amount of research suggests that systemic inflammation and some gout treatments may cause hearing impairment indirectly as a result of gout. Objective: To find the prevalence of Hearing Impairment among gout patients.  Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Mayo Hospital Lahore. Duration of the study was 6 months (April 2022 to September 2022). Sample size was 117. Non-probability (purposive) sampling technique was used. Patients of both gender (male and female) ages 35 to 50 years were included. Gout patients with other co-morbid factors, hearing impairment before onset of gout, history of ear discharge, middle ear surgery, family history of hearing impairment, sudden onset of hearing impairment, and family history of head trauma were excluded. For hearing evaluation, pure tone audiometry and record-keeping performa were used. SPSS version 23.0 package was used to analyze data. Results: Out of 117 patients, majority of the patients were in the age groups 46-50 years 58 (49.6%). There were 44 (37.6%) male patients and 73 (62.4%) female patients. 50 (42.7%) patients experienced hearing impairment. The most frequent hearing impairment was sensorineural in 44 (37.6%) and majority of them 41 (35.0%) experienced hearing impairment of a mild to moderate degree.  Conclusion: The study demonstrates a significant prevalence of hearing impairment in gout. The most frequent hearing impairment was sensorineural and mostly experienced hearing impairment of a mild to moderate degree.