Self-assessment of hearing problems in an elderly population. A longitudinal study.

As part of a large population study, 386 randomly selected probands 70 years of age, representative of the population of an industrialized Swedish city, were questioned regarding hearing difficulties in different social conditions. The same questions were presented to the participants of that study, at the age of 75 and 79 years. The results showed that of the 70-year-old persons, more than 95% had quite a good estimate of their hearing capacity. The subjective hearing problems increased with increasing age. However, at the age of 79 years, 86% still had no hearing problems or had only slight or moderate difficulties. The males reported that they had more hearing problems than the females. The prevalence of irritating tinnitus was about the same for males as for the females (8%). The number of probands with severe tinnitus was constant throughout the investigated period. It is suggested that hearing difficulties experienced when talking to only one person can be used to estimate the need for hearing amplification. A comparison between two cohorts with an age difference of 5 years was made. In a difficult listening situation at the age of 70 years, the hearing of subjects born in 1906-07 was reportedly worse than that of these born in 1901-02.