Hearing levels among elderly nursing home residents.

Specific frequency and degree of hearing loss data were determined for 202 elderly nursing home residents (159 females, 43 males) drawn from five nursing homes in three cities. Mean hearing levels and distribution of degree of hearing loss are presented for subjects by decade groups. Data also are presented by sex and by ear. Pure tone averages (500, 1000, 2000 Hz) for the better ear showed a substantial deterioration in each decade interval beginning from ages in the 60s and extending into the 90s. The prevalence of loss of hearing sensitivity for all subjects was 82% when a 26 dB pure tone average was used as a cutoff; 48% had pure tone averages greater than 40 dB. Consideration of collapsed ear canals on a sub-group of this sample suggested that conventional threshold findings slightly overestimated the prevalence of loss in this population.