The current state of age-related hearing loss in South Korea

Hyun Woo Lim; Sung Won Chae

doi:10.5124/jkma.2011.54.9.910

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Lim and Chae: The current state of age-related hearing loss in South Korea

Focused Issue of This Month

Hearing loss in the aging society

Journal of the Korean Medical Association

Journal of the Korean Medical Association 2011; 54(9): 910-917.

Published online: 15 September 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2011.54.9.910

The current state of age-related hearing loss in South Korea

Hyun Woo Lim, MD, Sung Won Chae, MD

Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Sung Won Chae, schae@kumc.or.kr

Received 11 July 2011 Accepted 25 July 2011

(open-access):

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The inevitable deterioration in hearing ability that occurs with age, age-related hearing loss (ARHL) or presbycusis, is a multifactorial process that can vary in severity from mild to profound. The number of cases of age-related hearing loss is growing due to the rapid growth of South Korea's aging population. According to the Korean Health Statistics of 2009, the incidence of unilateral hearing loss in people aged 65 or older is 17.5 percent, while the incidence of bilateral hearing loss exceeds 25.9 percent. Left untreated, age-related hearing loss of a moderate or greater degree affects communication and can decrease quality of life. Comprehensive rehabilitation by hearing aids or cochlear implant are widely available but underused in part because of social attitudes that undervalue the effect of hearing on life, in addition to the cost and stigma associated with hearing aids. Proper screening tests for ARHL should be developed and primary care physicians should screen and refer their elderly patients for assessment and remediation. In addition, development of hearing aids with a low cost of distribution and an increase in the size of government subsidies to hearing aids are imperative.

Keywords: Presbycusis, Rehabilitation, Korea

Figures and Tables

Figure 1

Incidence of bilateral hearing impairment by age groups in 2010. Elder age groups and men showed higher incidence of bilateral hearing impairment (From Korea health statistics 2009: Korea National Health and Nutri-tion Examination Survey [KNHANESIV-3] [Internet]. Cheongwon: Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2011) [22].

Table 1

Trend of population composition by age group of South Korea

From Korea National Statistical Office. Population projections for Korea. Daejeon: Korea National Statistical Office; 2006 [16].

Table 2

Prevalence of presbycusis in different countries

PTA, pure tone audiometry.

Table 3

Incidence of age-related hearing loss in Koreans living in Seoul, Kyunggi and Kangwon provinces (≥65 yr)

Values are presented as number (%).

From Kim HN, et al. J Korean Med Sci 2000;15:580-584, with permission from the Korean Academy of Medical Science [21].

Appendix

Appendix 1

The Korean hearing handicap inventory for elderly-screening

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