Prevalence and incidence of hearing impairment among adults: a 13-year follow-up study

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and incidence of hearing impairment (HI) in a longitudinal setting among adults.

Design

An unscreened, population-based epidemiological 13-year follow-up study. Study sample: 850 randomly sampled 54 to 66-year-old baseline participants, of whom 559 participated in the follow-up study at the age of 68 to 79 years. A questionnaire-based interview, an otological examination and pure-tone audiometry were performed.

Results

The overall prevalence of HI was 70.3%, defined by better ear hearing level (BEHL)  ≥ 20 dB in the 0.5-4 kHz frequency range. The prevalence was higher among men (78.6%) than among women (63.7%). The overall incidence rate for HI was 45.8 per 1000 person years and the 13-year cumulative incidence was 60.9%. The incidence was higher among men and older participants.

Conclusion

HI is highly prevalent and incident among older adults in Northern Finland.

Keywords:

• Aging
• demographics/epidemiology
• prevalence
• incidence

Acknowledgements

The are grateful to all the study participants. We would like to thank the audiology assistants who were working for this project and the staff of the Hearing Centre at the Oulu University Hospital.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Finnish State Research funding and grants from the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation and the Finnish Society of Audiology.