AIMS: To investigate the association between baseline metformin use and incident hearing loss among participants with diabetes in the UK Biobank.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Results of this UK Biobank cohort study on metformin and hearing loss risk in people with diabetes should be reviewed when published in full; if a protective association is confirmed, it may inform counselling of diabetic patients about hearing health — but practice change requires reviewing the full data, effect size, and confounders.
Diabetes is a leading cause of acquired hearing loss, and metformin is one of the world's most prescribed drugs; even a modest association between metformin use and hearing loss risk would have major public health implications for audiologists managing diabetic patients.
- 01UK Biobank cohort study examines the link between metformin use and new-onset hearing loss in people with diabetes.
- 02Published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (PMID 42712098; DOI 10.1111/dom.71306).
- 03UK Biobank offers a large sample size with longitudinal follow-up, strengthening observational inference.
- 04Confounding by indication (sicker patients less likely to receive metformin) must be carefully considered.
- 05Findings could inform audiological counselling of diabetic patients if a significant association is found.
Baseline metformin use is associated with a difference in the risk of incident hearing loss among participants with diabetes.
studyunclear- PMID
- 42712098
- DOI
- 10.1111/dom.71306.
- Journal
- Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Participants with diabetes enrolled in the UK Biobank cohort
- Intervention
- Baseline metformin use
- Comparator
- Non-metformin diabetes management
Primary outcomes
Incident hearing loss