[Audiological results in hearing loss in old age]

A significant loss of performance of the ear was found to be a function of age in all audiological tests. Clear cases of presbycusis were only determined in persons above 70 years of age. According to finds, a severely handicapping loss in the ability to understand speech only occurred in the 90-year-old group suffering from primary presbycusis. A disturbing impairment of hearing in younger persons is most likely due to a secondary presbycusis. Contrary to previous opinions suprathreshold tests indicate a high percentage of sensoneural hearing losses are due to cochlear lesions. The dichotic discrimination test showed the highest correlation to age. This especially seems to be caused by age-inherent changes in central pathways. Altogether, although it has been this study were considerably handicapped, they were, however, thoroughly able to understand speech under favorable conditions.