Meniere's disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear. It is largely unknown what the reasons for the disease development are. Diabetes is a disease of high sugar levels in blood. Researchers found diabetes seems to be somewhat associated with Meniere's disease. We intend to assess how many patients with MD also have diabetes and/or use various antidiabetic drugs, and we intend to compare these figures to a group of control patients not suffering from MD. We would like to find out whether diabetes and/or using antidiabetic drugs are associated with an altered relative risk of developing MD. Since diabetes is a frequent disease on the rise, and since antidiabetic drugs are widely and increasingly used, a possible association between diabetes and MD is of substantial public health interest.
Meniere's disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear. There is only limited data on the epidemiology of MD, and the underlying pathology is still poorly understood. There are several hypotheses about the pathophysiology, but only few associations have been explored in rather small study populations. There is only little evidence on the association between diabetes mellitus overall, diabetes severity, diabetes control, diabetes duration and use of antidiabetic treatment in relation to the risk of developing incident MD. Previous studies suggested that patients with MD have a carbohydrate metabolism disorder, and a correlation with advanced hyperinsulinemia has been proposed. Therefore, diabetes itself or its treatment could influence the risk of onset of MD.
We will apply multivariate conditional logistic regression analyses calculating odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to explore in a large observational case-control analysis the association between diabetes and use of antidiabetic drugs and their association with the occurrence of MD.
Christoph Meier - Chief Investigator - University of Basel
Saskia Bruderer - Corresponding Applicant - University of Basel
Daniel Bodmer - Collaborator - University of Basel
Nadja Alexandra Stohler - Collaborator - University of Basel
Susan Jick - Collaborator - BCDSP - Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program