The age function of hearing--aspects of the epidemiology.

This paper gives a general perspective of age changes in hearing thresholds and reviews possible mechanisms for these age-associated hearing losses. Ways in which new technologies might be able, either now or in the foreseeable future, to determine to what extent the various structurally demonstrable age changes are responsible for these measured losses are suggested. It is hoped that, eventually, the extent to which deteriorations in these various structural components of the auditory system contribute to the ageing process in hearing will be quantified.