Evaluation of hearing level in patients on long term aspirin therapy

Introduction: Aspirin is a routinely prescribed drug, most notably for cardiovascular diseases, such as myocardial ischemia. This cross sectional, comparative study study aims to explore differences in hearing status between the cardiovascular disease patients on aspirin therapy and age matched controls. Methods: The study population consisted of 182 patients with heart disease taking long term aspirin (i.e., for more than one year). The control population consisted of 221 age matched controls who were not taking aspirin. Results: It was found that age of patient, not aspirin intake, was more important risk factor contributing to hearing loss. Conclusions: When confounding factors like age of the patient, hypertension and diabetes were taken into account, aspirin in its antiplatelet dose was not found to be the cause of any audiological problems like tinnitus and hearing loss.