What Does It Mean to Be Hearing Impaired?

Hearing loss is also called deafness or hearing level. It is the number of decibels that the human ear's listening threshold at a certain frequency is higher than the normal listening threshold. Hearing loss due to age is called senile deafness; hearing loss due to social environmental noise (except for age, occupational noise and diseases) is called social deafness; hearing loss caused by occupational noise is called noise deaf.

Hearing loss

Hearing loss is also called deafness or hearing level. It is the number of decibels that the human ear's listening threshold at a certain frequency is higher than the normal listening threshold. Hearing loss due to age is called

Hearing loss is a manifestation of auditory dysfunction. Heaviness is called hearing loss or hearing loss. Heaviness is called deafness or total deafness. Hearing loss is generally classified into three categories: conductive, sensorineural and mixed.

Conductive hearing loss: lesions in

Pure tone average listening threshold PTA: The three frequency points of 500Hz, 1000Hz and 2000Hz account for 70% of the importance of determining language intelligibility, which is a key range for measuring auditory function. For this reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) uses the average of hearing loss at three frequencies of 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, and 2000 Hz as the basis for classifying hearing loss.

In addition to the commonly used hearing loss classification methods mentioned above, the World Health Organization (WHO) promulgated a new classification standard in 1997, which added a 4000Hz hearing threshold compared to the previous standard, and fully considered the high-frequency hearing loss of hearing impaired persons. , Has a certain clinical value. The new standard is now adopted. It divides the degree of hearing loss into 5 levels according to the average hearing loss of 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz: 26 to 40 dB is mild, 41 to 55 dB is moderate, 56 to 70 dB is moderate, and 71 to 90 dB is severe, greater than 90dB is extremely severe.

In general, hearing tests can be performed in a hospital or professional hearing aid fitting center. With hearing tests, you can accurately measure hearing loss. The following figure is an example of an audiogram:

According to international standards, the small red circle represents the air conduction result of the right ear, the red greater than sign represents the bone conduction result of the right ear; the blue small cross represents the air conduction result of the left ear, and the blue less sign represents the left ear bone conduction result. According to the definition of the International Health Organization (WHO-1997), the average hearing loss is equal to the average of 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz of air conductance. In the figure above, the average hearing loss in the right ear is 75 dB and the left ear is 77.5 dB.

Meanwhile, the International Health Organization (WHO-1997) classifies hearing loss as follows:

An average hearing loss of 25 dB or less is normal;

The average hearing loss is between 26 and 40 dB for mild hearing loss;

The average hearing loss is between 41 and 60 dB as moderate hearing loss;

The average hearing loss is between 61 and 80 dB for severe hearing loss;

An average hearing loss of 81 dB or more is considered a severe hearing loss. ^[2]

If you don't have an audiogram, make a rough estimate:

There is no problem with normal language communication, but occasionally the conversation of others is not clear, so the average hearing loss generally does not exceed 45 decibels;

When listening to others, pay attention to listening. Others will not hear clearly when the voice is small. Watching TV turns on a large volume, so the average hearing loss is about 50 ~ 55 decibels;

Others must speak loudly to hear clearly, so in general, the hearing loss is not less than 60 decibels.