Table 1.
Characteristics of the study participants (N = 16,799).
Fig 1.
Pure tone average in the better ear at each age (500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, 3000 Hz, 4000 Hz, and 6000 Hz).
The average value was increased with age at all frequencies, especially at high frequencies.
Fig 2.
Prevalence of hearing impairment (more than 25 dB in the better ear) at each frequency by decade age (2009–2012).
The prevalence was steeply increased with age at all frequencies.
Table 2.
Prevalence of hearing impairment (more than 25 dB in the better ear) at each frequency by decade age.
Fig 3.
Prevalence of moderate hearing impairment (average of pure tone audiometry at 0.5, 1, 2 and 4k Hz more than 40 dB in the better ear).
An increasing prevalence over advancing years was observed regardless of gender.