Prevalence of severe-to-Profound hearing loss in the adult Swedish population and comparison with cochlear implantation rate

Abstract

Background

The prevalence of disabling hearing loss is increasing worldwide. However, previous studies on hearing loss prevalence have enrolled small populations or only provided estimates.

Aim

To establish the prevalence of severe-to-profound hearing loss (STPHL) in the adult Swedish population and compare it with the cochlear implantation rate in Sweden.

Material and methods

We established a database containing over 15 million audiograms obtained from regions covering > 99% of the Swedish population by extracting audiogram data from the computer software application, Auditbase. We used this database to calculate the percentage of adult patients with bilateral hearing levels ≥ 70 dB. We collected data regarding cochlear implantations in Sweden from the National Board of Welfare and Health.

Results

The prevalence of STPHL in the adult Swedish population was 0.28%. There were regional variations in the prevalence and rate of cochlear implantation; however, there was no association between both parameters.

Conclusions

This study presents an updated and reliable prevalence figure for STPHL in Sweden.

Significance

Patients with STPHL have extensive rehabilitation requirements; accordingly, it is important to determine the accurate prevalence of STPHL to inform the allocation of adequate resources.

Chinese Abstract

背景：全世界范围内致残性听力损失的患病率正在增加。然而, 以前的关于听力损失患病率的研究只纳入了少数人群或仅提供了估计值。

目的：确定瑞典成年人严重至深度听力损失 (STPHL) 的患病率人口并将其与瑞典的人工耳蜗植入率进行比较。

材料与方法：我们建立了一个包含来自覆盖 99% 以上瑞典人口的地区的超过 1500 万个听力图的数据库, 其方法是从计算机软件应用程序 Auditbase 中提取听力图数据。我们使用这个数据库来计算双侧听力水平为 70 dB 的成人患者的百分比。我们从瑞典国家福利和健康委员会收集了关于人工耳蜗植入的数据。

结果：瑞典成年人口中 STPHL 的患病率为 0.28%。患病率和人工耳蜗植入率具有区域性变化；但两个参数之间并没有关联。

结论：本研究提供了瑞典 STPHL 的最新且可靠的患病率数据。

意义：STPHL 患者有广泛的康复需求；因此, 确定 STPHL 的准确患病率很重要, 以便为足够的资源分配提供信息。

Keywords:

• Prevalence
• severe hearing loss
• profound hearing loss
• cochlear implant
• adult

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).