Audiological evaluation in geriatric age group

AIM: To evaluate the hearing thresholds in individuals aged above 65 years attending the Government General Hospital and among the people attending the hearing screening done in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. The study also includes the review of the literature on ARHL. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 185 individuals aged above 65 years are evaluated for hearing thresholds with the help of pure tone audiometry and speech audiometry. Among the 185 individuals 102 are patients attending the Department of ENT for the complaints of loss of hearing. The remaining 83 individuals are from the survey conducted to screen for hearing loss in the city of Thiruvananthapuram for the population aged above 65 years. Demographic data about the 185 individuals is collected. Pure tone audiogram and speech audiometry is done in all the patients. CONCLUSIONS:  PTA and SRT values are similar in both the groups. Early old age groups presented with mild to severe types of deafness and loss in lower frequencies. Late old aged people showed profound hearing loss and increased thresholds in higher frequencies. SRT estimation seemed more sensitive than calculating PTA in the persons above 85 years. Females showed 5 to 10 dB lower PTA values than males in all ages