HEARING-LOSS IN THE ELDERLY - A SURVEY IN GENERAL-PRACTICE

Objective: To determine the prevalence of undiagnosed hearing impairment in people aged 60 years or over in a general practice setting. Design: A self-administered questionnaire followed by physical examination and audiometry. Setting: A group general practice in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin. Patients: Two hundred and one people aged 60 years or over who were not known to be hearing impaired. Outcome measure: Results of air-conduction audiometry. Results: Seventy-five of the 201 people had undiagnosed hearing loss (37%). The assessments of hearing ability by the patients and their relations were good predictors of the outcome of the audiogram (P < 0.001). Occupational history, medical history and physical examination were poor predictors (P > 0.05). Conclusions: The use of audiometry for screening for hearing impairment in older general practice patients is likely to have a high yield. A large proportion of people with abnormal audiograms will, however, refuse a hearing aid.