"High frequency presbycusis"-is there an earlier onset?

Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine whether presbycusis occurs much earlier than previously believed if the high frequency (above 8 kHz) are included. Tertiary referral center (a teaching University). This is a cross-sectional observational study. Healthy adults from 20 to 49 years of age who had essentially normal hearing were included into the study. They were subjected to high frequency pure tone audiometry (until 16 kHz). Participants were grouped based on age ranges of 10 years (e.g., 20-29, 30-39, and 40-49) and the presence of symmetrical high frequency sensor neural hearing loss were documented. There is a significant presence of symmetrical high frequency sensor neural hearing loss (not attributed to any known risk factors) as early as from the age group of 40 to 49 years. Seven of 43 participants (16%) from age group of 20 to 29 years and 12 of 24 participants (50%) from age group of 30 to 39 years had significant high frequency hearing loss. High frequency hearing loss (high frequency Presbycusis) may occur much earlier than previously believed.

Keywords: Earlier onset; Presbycusis.