Early onset of presbyacusis in Down syndrome

Puretone threshold data are reported as a function of age for 152 subjects with Down syndrome (age range: 5.4 years to 59.1 years). Results for the Down syndrome subjects were compared to data collected on 53 non-syndrome mentally-retarded subjects, and to data previously collected by Jatho (1969) for normal individuals. The results revealed that Down syndrome subjects have an earlier onset of presbyacusis than both normal individuals and non-syndrome mentally-retarded subjects, and that presbyacusis is evident in Down syndrome by at least the second decade of life. The data imply that for Down syndrome subjects, early onset of presbyacusis is another manifestation of precocious aging. The study of presbyacusis in Down syndrome may give us additional insights on presbyacusis in the normal population. The results further imply that studies concerned with the incidence and type of hearing loss in Down syndrome need to take age into consideration.