Hearing Thresholds for Unscreened U.S. Adults: Data From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011–2012, 2015–2016, and 2017–2020 *

Trends in Hearing · 1 author, 1 centre

AI SUMMARY

FIDELITY 100%

This summary was generated by AI from a single paper. It has not been reviewed by a clinician and is not clinical advice. Verify against the source before acting on it.

AGENT 01 · STRUCTURED SUMMARY

TRACE TO SOURCE

“

TL;DR

Age and sex were the primary variables affecting thresholds, with males consistently showing worse hearing than females across all ages, and current NHANES medians slightly better than those in ISO 1999 (2013).

Full summary

408 CHARS

Non-Hispanic Blacks consistently showed lower (better) hearing thresholds than Non-Hispanic Whites. Current median HTLs were slightly better than the ISO 1999 (2013) reference values, differing by approximately 2–5 dB at 500 Hz and 2–8 dB at higher frequencies for males. Population percentile estimates (10th through 90th) are provided to facilitate interpretation of individual or group hearing thresholds.

STUDY TYPE

cross-sectional

SPECIALTY

epidemiology

SUMMARISED BY

AI pipeline

FIDELITY CHECK

100% · A

ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10017936

Hearing Thresholds for Unscreened U.S. Adults: Data From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011–2012, 2015–2016, and 2017–2020 *

Trends in Hearing

READ THE FULL PAPER

ABSTRACT

Abstract Hearing threshold levels (HTLs) at 500–8,000 Hz from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2012, 2015–2016, and 2017–2020 were analyzed for males and females ranging in age from 20 to 80-plus years ( N = 8,795). HTLs for the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles are provided for males and females. Equations were generated to describe median HTLs as a function of age at each frequency. The medians generated for this unscreened dataset of U.S. adults were compared to those in Table B.3 of ISO 1999 (2013), which came from analyses of the NHANES 1999–2006 datasets. The ISO 1999 values were found to be slightly higher (worse) at several frequencies. The ISO 1999 (2013) median HTLs were 2 to 5 dB worse at 500 Hz for males and females and 2 to 8 dB worse at 4,000 and 6,000 Hz for males than the updated NHANES estimates. As in prior analyses of NHANES data, HTLs worsened with age, were better for females than males, and were better for Non-Hispanic Blacks than for Non-Hispanic Whites. The latter difference was observed for both males and females, was confined to frequencies above 2,000 Hz, and widened with increasing age. Keywords: ageing, hearing loss, epidemiology

CITATION EXPORT

Larry E Humes. Hearing Thresholds for Unscreened U.S. Adults: Data From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011–2012, 2015–2016, and 2017–2020
*. Trends in Hearing. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1177/23312165231162727

AUTHORS

1 · 1 CENTRES

Larry E Humes

1Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA