Hearing Loss

Hearing loss of a degree sufficient to interfere with social and job-related communication is among the most common chronic neural impairments in the U.S. population. On the basis of health-interview data,1 it is estimated that approximately 4 percent of people under 45 years of age and 29 percent of those 65 years or over have a handicapping loss of hearing. A similar survey in Great Britain2 found that approximately 25 percent of the population questioned had some hearing difficulty, and audiometric evaluation of a portion of that population found that 20 percent had a hearing impairment exceeding 25 dB HL . . .