Nationwide Hearing Loss Trends Over Two Decades.

Area of Science:

• Audiology and Public Health
• Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases

Background:

• Hearing loss (HL) is a prevalent chronic condition in the United States.
• Understanding long-term trends in HL prevalence is crucial for public health interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate trends in hearing loss prevalence among US adults over the past two decades (1999-2018).
• To identify demographic groups experiencing changes in hearing loss rates.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of audiometric data from 13,468 adult participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2018.
• Defined hearing loss as pure tone average > 25 dB in at least one ear.
• Utilized multivariate logistic and linear regression to assess trends, controlling for age and sex.

Main Results:

• Overall hearing loss prevalence remained stable in adults (20-69 years) and the elderly (70+ years) across the study period.
• Significant downward trends in hearing loss prevalence were identified in adults aged 40-49 years and those with less than a high school education.
• No significant differences in hearing loss rates were found between adult and elderly cohorts based on regression analysis.

Conclusions:

• While overall hearing loss prevalence shows stability, a potential decline is suggested in the adult population after adjusting for age and gender.
• The elderly population did not exhibit a significant downward trend in hearing loss.
• Hearing loss may be decreasing among adults aged 40-49 and those with lower educational attainment.