Journal article
High prevalence of slight and mild hearing loss across mid-life: a cross-sectional national Australian study
J Wang, V Sung, CMP le Clercq, RA Burt, P Carew, RS Liu, FK Mensah, L Gold, M Wake
Public Health | W B SAUNDERS CO LTD | Published : 2019
Abstract
Objectives: Although presbycusis typically becomes symptomatic only in older age, slight and mild hearing loss may be detectable well before this. We studied current prevalence and characteristics of hearing loss in Australian mid-life adults. Study design: This was a population-derived national cross-sectional study nested within the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Methods: A total of 1485 parents/guardians (87.3% female) aged 30–59 years underwent air-conduction audiometry. Hearing loss was defined in three ways to maximize cross-study comparability: high Fletcher index (mean of 1, 2 and 4 kHz; primary outcome relevant to speech perception), lower frequency (mean of 1 and 2 kHz)..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by Financial Markets Foundation for Children
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grants 1041352 and 1109355, The Royal Children's Hospital Foundation (2014-241), Murdoch Children's Research Institute, The University of Melbourne, the National Heart Foundation of Australia (100660), the Financial Markets Foundation for Children (2014-055, 2016-310) and the Victorian Deaf Education Institute. The funding bodies did not play any role in the study. J. W. was supported by the University of Melbourne Postgraduate Scholarship and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute PhD Top Up Scholarship. The following authors were supported by the NHMRC: V.S. (Early Career Fellowship 1125687), P.C. (Centre of Research Excellence in Child Language 1023493), R.L. (Postgraduate Scholarship 1114567), F.M. (Career Development Fellowship 1111160), L.G. (Early Career Fellowship 1035100) and M.W. (Senior Research Fellowship 1046518) in this work. V.S. was additionally supported by a Cottrell Research Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, C.L.C. by a Ter Meulen Grant from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and M.W. by Cure Kids New Zealand.