Table 2.
PREVALENCE AND NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS ≥ 60 YEARS WITH UNTREATED HEARING LOSSa PER INCOME CATEGORY IN THE UNITED STATES, NHANES 1999–2006, 2009–2010
| 60–69 years (n = 291)b |
70–79 years (n = 571)b |
80 and older (n = 523)b |
Total Population Estimates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prevalence | Population Estimates | Prevalence | Population Estimates | Prevalence | Population Estimates | ||
| Total Household Income | |||||||
| < $20,000 | 0.84 (0.74,0.95) | 2,132,000 | 0.83 (0.78,0.88) | 1,904,000 | 0.74 (0.67,0.81) | 1,919,000 | 5,955,000 |
| $20,000–44,999 | 0.91 (0.83,1.00) | 2,853,000 | 0.77 (0.69,0.85) | 2,686,000 | 0.67 (0.60,0.74) | 2,118,000 | 7,656,000 |
| > $45,000 | 0.75 (0.61,0.88) | 2,413,000 | 0.70 (0.64,0.77) | 1,959,000 | 0.66 (0.57,0.75) | 1,436,000 | 5,808,000 |
| TOTAL UNTREATEDc | 7,397,000 | 6,549,000 | 5,473,000 | 19,419,000d | |||
| Poverty-Income Ratio | |||||||
| 0–1.30 | 0.88 (0.79,0.96) | 1,651,000 | 0.84 (0.79,0.90) | 1,594,000 | 0.70 (0.61,0.78) | 1,312,000 | 4,557,000 |
| > 1.30–3.50 | 0.88 (0.80,0.96) | 2,909,000 | 0.75 (0.68,0.83) | 3,413,000 | 0.70 (0.65,0.76) | 2,839,000 | 9,161,000 |
| > 3.50 | 0.73 (0.61,0.85) | 2,755,000 | 0.72 (0.65,0.79) | 1,988,000 | 0.66 (0.57,0.76) | 1,822,000 | 6,564,000 |
| TOTAL UNTREATEDc | 7,315,000 | 6,994,000 | 5,973,000 | 20,283,000d | |||
a
Hearing loss defined as speech-frequency pure tone average (PTA) >25 dB HL in the better hearing ear – 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 Hz used to calculate PTA.
b
Sample n’s show the number of people in the sample with hearing loss.
c
Numbers do not sum to group total because of rounding.
d
Numbers differ due to some missing data in the total household income variable.