Self-assessed hearing problems in Sweden: a demographic study.

A study of self-assessed hearing problems was performed comprising 48,680 Swedish inhabitants aged 16-84 years. The participants of the survey responded to personal interviews during the period 1986-1993. One of the questions in the interview concerned difficulties of hearing in background noise. The total prevalence of the reported hearing problems was 10.7 per cent, varying from 2.4 per cent in the youngest age group to 30 per cent in the oldest. Men reported difficulties in hearing more often than women, except in the youngest age group. Hearing problems were more often reported by manual workers, unemployed and by those who had taken early retirement, than by non-manual employees and the self-employed. Regional differences regarding hearing problems were observed. The prevalence of self-reported problems was lowest in metropolitan Stockholm (7.9 per cent) and increased in the following order: other major cities (9.4 per cent), other cities (10.5 per cent), small population centres (12.5 per cent), agricultural areas (13.5 per cent) and sparsely populated forest areas (15 per cent). In summary, a number of factors related to ageing, socioeconomic status and domicile were related to self-assessed difficulties hearing a conversation. These factors obviously include determinants such as genetics, health status, gender-related differences, exposure to noise and possible conditioning effects of low-level noise exposure.