Association of iris pigmentation with hearing disorders in patients presenting at a tertiary care hospital of Punjab, Pakistan.

Abstract

Objective: Hearing disorders are very common these days due to increasing noise pollution. Iris color is due to that melanin pigment. As in Pakistan, people having dark eye colors are common. Melanin is involved in the hearing because cochlear melanocytes are involved in generating endo cochlear potential that helps in hearing. Hence eye color may be associated with hearing loss due to melanin pigment. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Department of Physiology, Sahiwal Medical College, Sahiwal. Period: 11 June to 16 July 2022. Material & Methods: Convenient sampling technique was used. Patients with hearing disorders at OPD of Sahiwal teaching hospital were included in our research. Results: During the study period, 86 patients visited the STH as cases valid for this study. Majority of the patients (93.02%) had a darker iris and only a small number of them (4.65%) had a fair iris color. The middle ear disorders were the most common in the patients prevailing in 47.67% of the patients flowed by outer ear issues in 45.35% patients and the inner ear issues were less prevalent fount in only 6.98% patients. In 39.53% patients have issues in there both ears simultaneously. Though the statistical significance was not found between iris color and hearing disorder (p=0.904), yet it (iris color) was statistically significant with the age groups of the study population (p=0.004). Conclusion: There is no association between Iris color and hearing disorders.