Abstract
The air-bone gap was computed in an audiometric study of hearing loss in a random sample of older people (215 men and 272 women) using sound frequencies of 1,000 c.p.s. and 4,000 c.p.s. and omitting persons with abnormal ear drums. The prevalence of a gap larger than 10 dB was greater in both sexes for the higher sound frequency. There was no age effect on the air-bone gap in the sample but the gap increased significantly as hearing loss increased. Mean values of the gaps were significantly greater than zero in both sexes for both frequencies and significantly larger in men than in women at 4,000 c.p.s. In both sexes means were significantly larger at 4,000 c.p.s. than at 1,000 c.p.s. The many missing values in the study were mainly due to failure to hear the loudest signal available for bone conduction.