A Comparison of hearing threshold at low frequencies among smokers and non-smokers

Background and There are many factors affecting the risk of hearing loss. Smoking is one of these factors. Many studies show a link between smoking and hearing loss. However, the increase in hearing theresholds of smokers and non-smokers is less reported. This study was aimed comparing the hearingthres holds at low frequencies among smokers and non-smokers. In this cross-sectional study of medicine which was performed in 2012, in the health department of mahshahr city 40 male smokers and 40 non-smoking males with age range between 20 and 40 years were selected and studied by the researcher questionnaire based vestigation. The assessment of hearing loss was performed by using acoustic booth and audiometer with earphone amplivox DA260 Telephonic TDH-39P model. Data analysis were performed by using the software SPSS16 and P<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. The mean age of smokers and nonsmokers, were 4.44 ± 28.75 and 5.72 ± 29.02 years, respectively. The results showed that the threshold levels among smokers compared to non-smokers were significantly higher. (P<0.001). The findings showed that smoking as an effective factor of hearing loss can be discussed. As it was shown that there is a correlation between hearing thresholds at low frequencies among smokers and non-smokers of the subjected population.