Evaluation of age-related hearing loss

Abstract

Age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) is characterized by an increased hearing threshold and poor speech understanding in a noisy environment, slowed central processing of acoustic information, and impaired localization of sound sources. Presbycusis seriously affects the older people's quality of life. Particularly, hearing loss in the elderly contributes to social isolation, depression, and loss of self-esteem. Current amplification methods related to auditory rehabilitation can provide improved communication ability to users. But, simple auditory rehabilitation is ineffective in managing the central auditory processing disorder and the psychosocial problem of presbycusis. The evaluation of central auditory processing disorder and psychosocial disorder in presbycusis should not be overlooked while providing auditory rehabilitation.

Keywords: Age-related hearing loss; Auditory processing; Cochlea; Inner ear; Presbycusis.

Fig. 1

Different results of HINTS between age-related hearing loss patients who have similar pure tone thresholds. A: 65 female, who have no difficulty having a conversation in noise environment. B: 63 male, who have severe difficulty having a conversation in noise environment. HINT: hearing in noise test.