Clinical observation on hearing conditions of centenarians in northern district of China.

CONCLUSION

The hearing conditions of the centenarians were quite poor as regards hearing thresholds and speech detection ability.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate hearing conditions of centenarians.

METHODS

A total of 54 centenarians in Rizhao and Linyi Districts in Shandong Province were investigated to assess hearing conditions of centenerians comprehensively by questionnaire investigation, pure-tone audiometry, acoustic immitance, intelligence evaluation, and speech detection scores. Also, 135 individuals were recruited as controls and divided into four groups according to their age: 45-59 years, 60-69 years, 70-79 years, and 80-89 years.

RESULTS

The hearing thresholds of the centenarians were dramatically higher than those of the control group (p < 0.05) and all centenarians suffered moderate to profound hearing loss according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Few centenarians had normal level of speech detection scores. All centenarians showed descending hearing curve, and the hearing threshold of the male centenarians at 8000 Hz was higher than that of the females (p = 0.047). There was a significant air-bone conduction gap in the centenarians (p < 0.05).