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Objectives:

To assess the association between hearing impairment and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in an older population, using the self-administered 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36).

Design:

Participants of the Blue Mountains Hearing Study (BMHS, N= 2956) attended a comprehensive interview and hearing examination in which both self-reported and measured hearing impairments were assessed. Hearing impairment was defined as the pure-tone average of air-conduction hearing thresholds> 25 decibels hearing level (dB HL) for the four frequencies (0.5 to 4.0 kHz) in the better ear.

Results:

Of the 2431 participants with complete data (mean age, 67.0 yr), 1347 (55.4%) did not have measured hearing loss, whereas 324 (13.3%) had unilateral (285 mild, 22 moderate, 17 severe) and 760 (31.3%) had bilateral hearing impairment (478 mild, 207 moderate, 75 severe). After adjusting for …