Presbycusis, a bilateral sensorineural hearing loss caused by changes in the inner ear, is related to multiple factors such as noise exposure and otologic disease. In institute-based studies, we tried to determine the incidence of presbycusis in Korean populations living in Seoul, Kyunggi and Kangwon provinces by gender and age groups. The subjects were people who had visited health promotion centers. Pure tone audiometry was done over 20 years on 6,028 subjects. In a community-based study, the subjects were elderly residents of Kanghwa-do area. There were no obvious factors that could cause hearing impairment in the subjects. For the pure tone audiometry, hearing threshold was obtained by using the six-dimension method. The incidence of presbycusis for subjects aged 65 years and older was 37.8% and 8.3% for > or = 27 dB HL criterion and > or = 41 dB HL criterion, respectively. The incidence increased with age. A statistically significant difference in the hearing threshold was found between men and women aged 65 years or older. No differences were found between the community-based study and the institute- based studies. There was a high incidence (about 40%) of presbycusis among Koreans aged 65 years or older (for > or = 27 dB HL criterion). With an aging population, we anticipate that this report could be used to provide a basic data for the study of presbycusis.
Adult ; Aged ; Audiometry, Pure-Tone ; Auditory Threshold ; Female ; Frail Elderly ; Health Promotion ; Human ; Incidence ; Korea/epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Age ; Presbycusis/epidemiology* ; Presbycusis/diagnosis

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between pure-tone average (PTA), the fractional anisotropy (FA) of the auditory pathway, cognitive cortex and auditory cortex in presbycusis. METHOD: Twenty-five elderly subjects with presbycusis were participated in the study. PTA, speech discrimination abilities were evaluated in each subject. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was applied to access the FA of the IC, the superior frontal gyrus and the Heschl's gyrus. Compare the difference between two sides of the values of FA in the three areas. Bivariate correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of PTA and FA of the inferior colliculus (IC), the superior frontal gyrus and the Heschl's gyrus on speech discrimination abilities. RESULT: There were no significant differences between the left and right side of the inferior colliculus (P > 0.05). Higher FA values were recorded at the left side of the Heschl's gyrus and the superior frontal gyrus (P < 0.05). Both PTA and the FA of the superior frontal gyrus have a negative association with speech discrimination abilities (P < 0.01, P < 0.05), while the FA of the Heschl's gyrus has a positive association with speech discrimination abilities (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Our findings indicated that the speech discrimination abilities of the elderly is not only related to the peripheral auditory function, but also to the central auditory and cognitive function.
Aged ; Audiometry, Pure-Tone ; Auditory Cortex ; physiopathology ; Auditory Pathways ; Diffusion Tensor Imaging ; Humans ; Inferior Colliculi ; physiopathology ; Presbycusis ; diagnosis ; Speech Perception