Change in Self-Evaluation of Hearing Status According to Age: A Population-Based Study

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Background and Objectives Self-reported hearing levels determined by self-report questionnairesare not always correlated with the audiometric hearing level. It is necessary to ascertainthe subjectively perceived normal hearing threshold to determine the need for hearingaids at the appropriate time. The objective is to identify the level of correlation between theself-reported hearing level and the audiometric hearing level and ascertain the subjectivelyperceived normal hearing threshold for each age group.
Subjects and Method This cross-sectional study, using the data from the Korea NationalHealth and Nutrition Examination Survey V, looked at participants with hearing loss whowere aged ≥40 years. Pure tone audiometry was conducted bilaterally. Self-reported hearinglevel was ascertained via survey enquiring about hearing loss. The level of correlation betweenself-reported hearing level and audiometric hearing level, age-specific patterns of hearingself-evaluation and subjectively perceived normal hearing values at which participantscomplained of hearing loss were main outcomes.
Results Mean audiometric thresholds (MATs) increased with the age and degree of self-reportedhearing level. The accuracy of self-reported hearing level compared to the audiometricthreshold decreased with age both in the better-ear and worse-ear groups. Younger participantstended to overestimate their hearing impairment, while older participants tended to underestimateit. Subjectively perceived normal hearing thresholds increased with age and theywere very close to the MATs for each age group.
Conclusion Results can be useful for devising different age-group specific pure tone audiometry-based diagnostic criteria for self-reported hearing loss, which can be used to determinethe need for hearing aid in a timely manner.

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