Self-reported hearing difficulty and hearing impairment in Japanese people living in a community

Nine hundred and eighteen people aged 40 years and over were examined to assess the relationship between self-reported hearing difficulty and hearing impairment at 1 kHz and 4kHz during annual health check-ups. After adjustment for potential confounding factors of self-reported hearing difficulty su...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of audiology Vol. 43; no. 1; p. 54
Main Authors Okamoto, Mitsuharu, Nakanishi, Noriyuki, Tatara, Kozo
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 01.01.2004
Subjects
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Audiometry, Pure-Tone
Auditory Threshold
Female
Hearing Loss - diagnosis
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Odds Ratio
Otoscopy
Risk Factors
Self Concept
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Summary:Nine hundred and eighteen people aged 40 years and over were examined to assess the relationship between self-reported hearing difficulty and hearing impairment at 1 kHz and 4kHz during annual health check-ups. After adjustment for potential confounding factors of self-reported hearing difficulty such as age, sex, noise exposure, ear disease and tinnitus. the odds ratios for self-reported hearing difficulty at 1 kHz compared with a hearing threshold of 30 dB were 1.74. 3.37 and 4.97 for hearing thresholds of 40 dB, 50 dB, and over 50 dB, respectively (p-value for trend = 0.003). At 4 kHz, the respective odds ratios for self-reported hearing difficulty were 1.53, 2.59 and 1.83 (p-value for trend = 0.012). These results suggest that self-reported hearing difficulty is closely associated with the severity of hearing impairment at 1 kHz and 4 kHz in a community-residing population and that people with hearing impairment at 1 kHz would be more sensitive to their hearing difficulty than those with hearing impairment at 4 kHz.
ISSN:1499-2027
DOI:10.1080/14992020400050008