A Little Hard of Hearing

New York, NY, August 24, 2009 — Q. Does loss of hearing with age afflict men and women to the same degree?

A. From 20 to 69, men are about twice as likely as women to suffer hearing loss, said Howard J. Hoffman, an epidemiologist with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. After 70, men continue to have somewhat higher rates of hearing loss, Mr. Hoffman said, but starting at about 80, both men and women have very high, and approximately equal, rates of poor hearing. The figures are based on national studies involving interviews about hearing problems and examinations, he said.

“Aging alone is a major risk factor for hearing loss,” Mr. Hoffman said. “We know that other chronic conditions are associated with hearing impairment, such as diabetes and perhaps hypertension, but these do not account for the gender-specific differences.”

Men are more than twice as likely to report long-term exposure to loud noise, Mr. Hoffman said, “so this is probably an important reason why men have worse hearing, on average, as working-age adults.”

Interestingly, Mr. Hoffman said, among young adults with hearing impairment, more women than men wear hearing aids, but in those over 70, men are about 50 percent more likely to wear hearing aids than women of comparable age with hearing loss.

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY, published in The New York Times