Future burden of age-related hearing loss may be overestimated: JAMA Study

USA: Hearing impairment (HI) risk and rate of pure-tone average (PTA) change is lower for Baby Boom Generation and Silent Generation compared with the Greatest Generation, finds a recent study.

The findings of the study, published in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, implies that the future burden of HI may be lower than suggested by the current estimate. 

Age-adjusted HI prevalence decreased across generations in the 20th century. This suggests that HI is partially preventable. However, it is not known of HI incidence differs by generation. Therefore, Adam J. Paulsen, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues examined whether HI incidence and PTA change differ by generation and identify factors that underline these differences.

For the purpose, the researchers used data from the Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study (EHLS) and Beaver Dam Offspring Study (BOSS) -- a pair of studies of adults in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Baseline levels were measured from 1993 to 1995 in the EHLS and 2005 to 2008 in BOSS, with two 5-year follow-up examinations in each cohort. This longitudinal cohort study assessed 3651 participants without HI at baseline who had follow-up data.