Untitled

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate whether the occurrence of maternal pathologies, mainly Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertensive Syndromes in the gestational or pre-gestational period may be related to hearing impairment in postpartum women.Methods: Observational, prospective study including 361 puerperal women who had their deliveries at a reference University Hospital for pregnant women with clinical history of risk. Auditory evaluation was performed by Distortion Product Otoaccoustic Emissions (DPOAE) within 14 days after delivery. Measures of central tendency and absolute and relative frequencies were used to describe the sample and the chi-square test and binary logistic regression to assess the correlation among variables. Signifi cance higher than 95% was observed and the study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee. Results:A total of 361 postpartum women were studied and 7.5% had hearing impairment. The frequency of gestational hypertension was 13.9%, that of gestational diabetes was 8.6% and that of pre-pregnancy diabetes mellitus was 5.8%. The presence of hearing impairment was signifi cantly correlated with the occurrence of pre-pregnancy diabetes mellitus (OR: 4.5 -CI: 1.51-1.47), and maternal age greater than 29 years (OR: 3.72 -1, 58-8.76); A correlation was also found between maternal age and the presence of pre-pregnancy diabetes mellitus (OR: 3.84 -CI: 1.45-10.15). Conclusion:In the population of postpartum women evaluated, having Diabetes Mellitus prior to pregnancy and belonging to the age group older than 29 years increases the chance of having hearing loss.Correlation between the presence of maternal gestational or pre-gestational pathologies and hearing impairment in the puerperal period