“ Hearing impairment associated with aging ”
Evaluation of hearing by pure-tone and speech audiogram in patients with presbycusis.
2016 Volume 59 Issue 2 Pages 119-123
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2016 Volume 59 Issue 2 Pages 119-123
In order to evaluate hearing loss in elderly people, we recorded and compared the pure-tone threshold and speech discrimination scores in 399 ears. The subjects were 201 males and 198 females with sensorineural hearing loss; the patients were seen between 2007 and 2014 and ranged in age from 6 to 96 years. The pure-tone audiogram showed decline of the threshold after the age of forty, and the maximum score in the speech audiogram became worse after the age of sixty years. While the pure-tone threshold showed a large dispersion in younger patients, the discrimination scores were poor and widely spread dispersed in the elderly.
These two auditory tests are psychological methods and depend to some extent on the sensitivity of the aging patients. The difference between the two tests seems to be that the pure-tone test reflects the function of the cochlea per se, while the speech discrimination test reflects the cochlear nerve activity. While presbycusis is characterized by abnormalities at both levels, the ages of onset differ. Therefore, two tests should be coupled and carefully studied together for evaluating the hearing problems associated with aging.
