Table 2. Estimated Prevalence and Number of Persons 60 Years or Older in the 2018 US Adult Civilian Population With Audiometric Hearing Loss and Self-reported Hearing Troublea.
| Characteristic | Audiometric Hearing Lossb | Self-reported Hearing Troublec | Difference in No. of Peopled | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % (95% CI) | No., Millions | % (95% CI) | No., Millions | Relative % Difference | Difference, No., Millions | |
| Overall, >25 dB | 39.84 (36.62-43.07) | 28.35 | 40.31 (37.89-42.73) | 28.68 | 1.16 | 0.33 |
| Audiometric hearinge | ||||||
| Normal | NA | NA | 21.98 (19.55-24.41) | 9.41 | NA | 9.41 |
| Mild | 26.29 (23.45-29.12) | 18.70 | 57.70 (54.06-61.34) | 10.79 | –42.30 | –7.91 |
| Moderate or greater | 13.56 (11.95-15.16) | 9.65 | 87.90 (84.27-91.53) | 8.48 | –12.12 | –1.17 |
| Sex | ||||||
| Female | 32.29 (28.33-36.24) | 12.50 | 31.99 (28.81-35.17) | 12.38 | –0.96 | –0.12 |
| Male | 49.01 (44.53-53.49) | 15.90 | 50.39 (47.07-53.71) | 16.35 | 2.83 | 0.45 |
| Age | ||||||
| 60-69 | 26.17 (22.90-29.43) | 9.70 | 35.22 (32.02-38.43) | 13.06 | 34.64 | 3.36 |
| 70-79 | 54.78 (49.64-59.91) | 12.20 | 46.51 (43.09-49.93) | 10.36 | –15.08 | –1.84 |
| >80 | 78.28 (73.50-83.06) | 9.24 | 50.46 (42.40-58.53) | 5.96 | –35.50 | –3.28 |
| Race/ethnicity | ||||||
| Hispanic | 37.93 (31.97-43.90) | 2.47 | 37.79 (31.71-43.88) | 2.46 | –0.40 | –0.01 |
| Non-Hispanic | ||||||
| Black | 26.33 (21.83-30.84) | 1.82 | 29.06 (24.87-33.25) | 2.01 | 10.44 | 0.19 |
| White | 41.27 (37.50-45.03) | 21.99 | 41.67 (38.79-44.55) | 22.21 | 1.00 | 0.22 |
| Other | 44.92 (33.38-56.47) | 2.00 | 42.41 (28.91-55.91) | 1.88 | –6.00 | –0.12 |
| Education | ||||||
| <High school | 52.94 (47.36-58.51) | 4.68 | 46.69 (42.07-51.31) | 4.13 | –11.75 | –0.55 |
| High School | 45.02 (39.60-50.45) | 10.24 | 40.71 (36.31-45.12) | 9.26 | –9.57 | –0.98 |
| >High school | 31.29 (27.88-34.70) | 12.38 | 37.20 (33.72-40.67) | 14.72 | 18.90 | 2.34 |
| Poverty index ratiof | ||||||
| <1.25 | 52.05 (46.13-57.97) | 5.18 | 41.62 (36.25-47.00) | 4.14 | –20.08 | –1.04 |
| ≥1.25-<3.50 | 44.00 (39.97-48.03) | 11.70 | 43.22 (40.14-46.31) | 11.50 | –1.71 | –0.20 |
| ≥3.50 | 30.19 (25.77-34.60) | 10.45 | 35.47 (30.48-40.46) | 12.27 | 17.42 | 1.82 |
Abbreviations: HL, hearing level; NHANES, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Adult civilian population (US residents not in the active-duty military); count estimates from the 2018 US Census Bureau Current Population Survey.4
Audiometric hearing loss defined by a four-frequency (0.5-, 1.0-, 2.0-, 4.0-kHz) better-ear pure-tone average threshold >25 dB HL.
Self-reported hearing trouble defined as self-reported general hearing condition as little trouble, moderate trouble, lot of trouble, or deaf.
Difference in the estimated number of adults with audiometric hearing loss and the number of adults with self-reported hearing trouble. A positive value indicates that self-reported hearing trouble overestimates the number of people with hearing loss. A negative value indicates that self-reported hearing trouble underestimates the number of people with hearing loss.
Audiometric hearing defined by a 4-frequency (0.5-, 1.0-, 2.0-, and 4.0-kHz) better-ear pure-tone average threshold as normal hearing (≤25 dB HL), mild hearing loss (>25 dB but ≤40 dB HL), or moderate or greater hearing loss (>40 dB HL).
Poverty index ratio is a calculated value in the NHANES data set that is the ratio of family income to poverty; NHANES uses poverty guidelines from the Department of Health and Human Services to calculate the poverty index ratio such that family income is divided by the poverty guidelines according to family size, year, and state. Values greater than 5 were coded in NHANES as 5 owing to disclosure concerns, and as such, poverty index ratio ranges from 0 to 5. Values less than 1 indicate that the participant family income was below the poverty level, and values greater than 1 indicate that the participant family income is above the poverty level.