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In a 25-year follow-up of the Framingham Offspring Study, researchers found that more than half of middle-aged participants who had normal hearing at baseline developed hearing loss (56.2%) over two and a half decades. Among the full sample, hearing thresholds worsened on average by 15.1 dB for the pure-tone average (0.5–4 kHz) and by 8.4–35.8 dB across individual frequencies (0.5–8 kHz).
Higher age, lower education, and high lifetime noise exposure correlates with greater incidence, while among those older than 50 at baseline, hypertension and elevated stroke-risk (via the Framingham Stroke Risk Profile) were also significant predictors of hearing loss. Progression was faster in older individuals, in women, and in those with less education, and among older participants hypertension and higher diastolic blood pressure were associated with more rapid decline.
The authors conclude that hearing loss is common, develops gradually over years, and may be at least partly preventable through management of modifiable factors.
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