Hearing threshold levels at age 70 years (65-74 years) in the unscreened older adult population of the United States, 1959-1962 and 1999-2006.

OBJECTIVES

To provide hearing threshold percentiles from unscreened older adults for creating new Annex B reference standards.

DESIGN

Percentiles are calculated, and 95% confidence intervals for medians from two U.S. surveys are compared graphically.

RESULTS

Median thresholds are lower (better) in the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for men across all frequencies except 1 kHz. Results for women are similar; however, there is more overlap in confidence intervals across frequencies.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of hearing impairment in older adults, age 70 years (65-74 years), is lower in 1999-2006 compared with 1959-1962, consistent with our earlier findings for younger adults.