Hearing in middle age: a population snapshot of 40- to 69-year olds in the United Kingdom.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To report population-based prevalence of hearing impairment based on speech recognition in noise testing in a large and inclusive sample of U.K. adults aged 40 to 69 years. The present study is the first to report such data. Prevalence of tinnitus and use of hearing aids is also reported.

Design

The research was conducted using the UK Biobank resource. The better-ear unaided speech reception threshold was measured adaptively using the Digit Triplet Test (n = 164,770). Self-report data on tinnitus, hearing aid use, noise exposure, as well as demographic variables were collected.

Results

Overall, 10.7% of adults (95% confidence interval [CI] 10.5-10.9%) had significant hearing impairment. Prevalence of tinnitus was 16.9% (95%CI 16.6-17.1%) and hearing aid use

SUBMITTER: Dawes P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4264521 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature