Volume : 8, Issue : 11, November - 2019

Assessment of hearing threshold levels in clinically normal individuals and estimate the risk of age factor among them.

Dr. Rajesh Kumar A, Dr. Niharika B, Dr. Naveed Ahamed

Abstract :

Background: In the current study we estimated the hearing threshold in different age groups and compared the hearing threshold in older adults with younger adults. Aims & objectives: 1.To identify the mean hearing threshold in different age groups & create baseline data of the hearing 2.To study the affect of age and gender on hearing threshold in adults. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study, simple random sampling method, sample size of 100 belonging to age group of 15-69 yrs, with normal tympanic memane and no H/o of noise exposure. These subjects were motivated to undergo pure tone audiometry to analyze their hearing threshold levels. Data thus collected has been analyzed using tables and graphs, mean hearing threshold levels have been calculated. Results: As the age increased the hearing threshold increased for all frequencies. Hearing thresholds of 4 KHz, 8 KHz showered a statistical significance between both genders for people older than 30 yrs, with the 4 KHz frequency showing the largest difference. Conclusion: It is very common among general population for hearing to get worse as they get older. This usually affects their ability to understand and they can hear low frequencies better than high frequencies, hence people with age related hearing loss find it difficult to follow conversations in noisy environment. Recommendations: After 40 years of age onwards, every individual must go for regular audiometric evaluation annually. In regular health check-up policies, pure tone audiometry must be included along with other routine investigations.