Ranjana Kumari1, Mogit Gupta2, Praveen Kumar Muthurairaj3, Mahendran Kandasamy4, Kavidha Manivannan5, Maheshwari Murugan6
BACKGROUND Hearing impairment is present in at least one-third of the population above 65 years of age. This loss of hearing leads to difficulty in social or professional interactions, social isolation depression individually. Besides in the working population above, it results in loss of efficiency and financial burden. This study has been undertaken to study the pattern of hearing in the above 50 years males who attended the E.N.T. OP in our tertiary care hospital for various ear-related complaints. MATERIALS AND METHODS This cross-sectional study was carried out in the E.N.T. Department, Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College between 6th August 2012 and 30th May 2015. 486 male patients with complaints related to ear were included. Those patients who had otitis media or had undergone ear surgery were excluded. RESULTS Hearing impairment was detected in 62% of the study population, although only 10% reported to the clinic due to complaints of hearing loss by family. Noise-induced hearing loss was detected in 27.5% of the patients. CONCLUSION Routine audiological evaluation especially in adults in the over 50 age group should be a priority. There should be more emphasis on adopting strategies to prevent noise-induced hearing loss and on rehabilitating the above 50 hearing impaired in our society.
