Effect of ear exercises on hearing loss in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after radiotherapy

Abstract

The objective of the study is to explore the effect of an ear health exercise on hearing loss of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma receiving radiotherapy. One hundred and seventeen patients diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma from June 2018 to January 2020 were selected as research subjects randomly divided into three groups. Thirty‐eight cases were in experimental group 1 and given an ear health exercise for 6 months, 38 cases were in experimental group 2 and given an ear health exercise for 12 months, and 41 cases in control group only received hearing health education. The hearing loss of three groups was compared before intervention and at 6 and 12 months after intervention. The value of the average audibility threshold of air conduction, the occurrence rate of abnormal acoustic immittance (ear), the rate of tympanic cavity effusion, and occur rate of secretory otitis media in two experimental groups were lower than control group among different time points. The above indicators of experimental group 2 were lower than those of group 1 (p < .05). The total effective rate of hearing improvement in experimental groups 1 and 2 was higher than that of control group after the intervention. Besides, the total effective rate in experimental group 2 was higher than that in group 1, and the difference was statistically significant (p < .05). There was no serious adverse reaction. An ear health exercise can reduce hearing loss of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma receiving radiotherapy. It can be used as daily rehabilitation measures to prevent or delay hearing loss for these patients.