Nearly 1 in 7 Hispanic/Latino adults has some hearing loss

In the largest study to date of hearing loss among Hispanic/Latino adults in the United States, researchers have found that nearly 1 in 7 has hearing loss, a number similar to the general population prevalence. The analysis also looked at the differences between subgroups and found that Hispanics of Puerto Rican descent have the highest rate of hearing loss, while Mexican-Americans have the lowest. The study identified several potential risk factors for hearing loss, including age, gender, education level, income, noise exposure, and diabetes. The study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was published online May 28 by JAMA Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery.

"Hearing loss can affect a person's overall quality of life, and has been linked to depression and dementia in older adults," said James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIH's National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), which partly supported the work. "This study paints a detailed picture of hearing loss among a large and diverse group of Hispanic/Latino participants, and could help inform the development of intervention strategies to meet the needs of this growing population in the United States."

Approximately 15 percent of American adults ages 18 and older report some hearing loss, according to studies that have looked at the general population. The current study looked at data gathered as part of the larger, NIH-supported Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL).

The study comprises 16,415 Hispanic/Latino individuals, ages 18 to 74, in Bronx, New York; Chicago; Miami, and San Diego. The participants represent a wide range of backgrounds, including Central American, Cuban, Dominican, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and South American. The HCHS/SOL, which was launched in 2006 by the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), was designed to understand cardiovascular disease prevalence and risk factors in the Hispanic/Latino population.

The participants' hearing ability was determined by having them listen to tones at different pitches and averaging their hearing thresholds in each ear at four different pitches, ranging from low to high. A person was considered to have hearing loss if his or her average hearing threshold was louder than 25 decibels (about as loud as the sound of rustling leaves) in at least one ear.

The results showed that overall, 15.1 percent of Hispanic/Latino individuals had hearing loss in one ear, and roughly half of these, 8.2 percent, had hearing loss in both ears. Among different subgroups, prevalence of hearing loss was highest among people with a Puerto Rican background--more than 21 percent had hearing loss in one ear and more than 12 percent in both ears. The lowest rate of hearing loss was seen among Mexican-Americans, where about 11 percent had hearing loss in one ear and 6 percent in both ears.