Americans Hear as Well or Better Today Compared With 40 Years Ago: Hearing Threshold Levels in the Unscreened Adult Population of the United States, 1959–1962 and 1999–2004

Abstract

For men and women of a specific age, high-frequency hearing thresholds were lower (better) in 1999-2004 than in 1959-1962. The prevalences of hearing impairment were also lower in the recent survey. Differences seen at 500 Hz may be attributable at least in part to changes in standards for ambient noise in audiometry. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2004 distributions are offered as a possible replacement for Annex B in ISO-1999 and ANSI S3.44.