Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jul 10;78(8):529-535.
doi: 10.1136/jech-2024-222143.

Agreement between audiometric hearing loss and self-reported hearing difficulty on the Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory differs by demographic factors

Lauren K Dillard  1 , Lois J Matthews  2 , Judy R Dubno  2
Affiliations

Agreement between audiometric hearing loss and self-reported hearing difficulty on the Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory differs by demographic factors

Lauren K Dillard et al. J Epidemiol Community Health. .

Abstract

Background: New standardised measures of self-reported hearing difficulty can be validated against audiometric hearing loss. This study reports the influence of demographic factors (age, sex, race and socioeconomic position (SEP)) on the agreement between audiometric hearing loss and self-reported hearing difficulty.

Methods: Participants were 1558 adults (56.9% female; 20.0% racial minority; mean age 63.7 (SD 14.1) years) from the Medical University of South Carolina Longitudinal Cohort Study of Age-Related Hearing Loss (1988-current). Audiometric hearing loss was defined as the average of pure-tone thresholds at frequencies 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 kHz >25 dB HL in the worse ear. Self-reported hearing difficulty was defined as ≥6 points on the Revised Hearing Handicap Inventory (RHHI) or RHHI screening version (RHHI-S). We report agreement between audiometric hearing loss and the RHHI(-S), defined by sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and observed minus predicted prevalence. Estimates were stratified to age group, sex, race and SEP proxy.

Results: The prevalence of audiometric hearing loss and self-reported hearing difficulty were 49.0% and 48.8%, respectively. Accuracy was highest among participants aged <60 (77.6%) versus 60-70 (71.4%) and 70+ (71.9%) years, for white (74.6%) versus minority (68.0%) participants and was similar by sex and SEP proxy. Generally, agreement of audiometric hearing loss and RHHI(-S) self-reported hearing difficulty differed by age, sex and race.

Conclusions: Relationships of audiometric hearing loss and self-reported hearing difficulty vary by demographic factors. These relationships were similar for the full (RHHI) and screening (RHHI-S) versions of this tool.

Keywords: AGING; CHRONIC DI; COHORT STUDIES; EPIDEMIOLOGIC MEASUREMENTS; TREATMENT OUTCOME.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

References

    1. Nash SD, Cruickshanks KJ, Klein R, et al. The prevalence of hearing impairment and associated risk factors: the Beaver Dam Offspring Study. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2011;137(5):432–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ciorba A, Bianchini C, Pelucchi S, Pastore A. The impact of hearing loss on the quality of life of elderly adults. Clin Interv Aging. 2012:159–63. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tsimpida D, Panagioti M, Kontopantelis E. Forty years on: a new national study of hearing in England and implications for global hearing health policy. Int J Audiol. 2023;62(1):62–70. - PubMed
    1. Cruickshanks KJ, Wiley TL, Tweed TS, et al. Prevalence of hearing loss in older adults in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin: The Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study. Am J Epidemiol. 1998;148(9):879–86. - PubMed
    1. Gopinath B, Rochtchina E, Wang JJ, et al. Prevalence of age-related hearing loss in older adults: Blue Mountains Study. Arch Int Med. 2009;169(4):415–8. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources