BACKGROUND we aimed to assess both cross-sectional and temporal links between measured hearing impairment and self-perceived hearing handicap, and health outcomes. METHODS in total, 811 Blue Mountains Hearing Study participants (Sydney, Australia) aged ≥55 years were examined twice (1997-99 and 2002-04). Hearing levels were measured with pure-tone audiometry. The shortened version of the hear...

BACKGROUND As in all western countries, Australia's older population experiences high levels of hearing impairment coupled with relatively low levels of hearing device usage. Poor hearing diminishes the quality of life of affected individuals and their families. This paper discusses how to improve Australian hearing health policies in order to better combat this impairment amongst older Austral...

This review concentrates on factors causing permanent hearing impairment in childhood, described in some European studies. The emphasis is on comparative studies, based on strict criteria and terminology upon which longitudinal changes in the pattern of factors causing hearing impairment can be demonstrated in well-defined cohorts of children. The high proportion of 20-39 percent of unknown cau...

PURPOSE Spatial hearing refers to the ability to understand speech and identify sounds in various environments. We assessed the validity of the Korean version of the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire (K-SHQ). MATERIALS AND METHODS We performed forward translation of the original English SHQ to Korean and backward translation from the Korean to English. Forty-eight patients who were able to read a...

Auditory neuropathy affects the normal synchronous activity in the auditory nerve, without affecting the amplification function in the inner ear. Patients with auditory neuropathy often complain that they can hear sounds, but cannot understand speech. Here we report psychophysical tests indicating that these patients' poor speech recognition is due to a severe impairment in their temporal proce...

OBJECTIVE To identify factors contributing to the declining prevalence of hearing impairment in more recent generations. METHODS We used data on hearing thresholds and potential risk factors of hearing impairment collected from studies in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, the Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study (1993-1995, n=3753; 1998-2000, n=2800 and 2003-2005, n=2395), the concurrent Beaver Dam Eye St...

The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of hearing impairment in children in a public hospital in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and to investigate the association with risk factors described in the literature. This study was cross-sectional and retrospective and analyzed 798 newborns and infants evaluated in the Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening Program from June 2...

CONTEXT Hearing impairment affects many older adults, but the incidence is unknown. OBJECTIVE To determine the 5-year incidence and progression of hearing impairment. DESIGN A longitudinal, population-based study of adults aged 48 to 92 years at baseline examination. Hearing sensitivity was measured twice, 5 years apart. SETTING Testing was conducted at the Beaver Dam Community Hospital, ...

Studies on socioeconomic and epidemiological effects of hearing impairment in middle-income countries of Southeast Asia are still quite scarce. This study examines the association between hearing impairment and health outcomes in Thailand. Data derived from a cohort of 87 134 Open University adults aged 15 to 87 years residing throughout Thailand. Approximately 8.5% of cohort members reported t...