Audiometric thresholds and prevalence of tinnitus among male veterans in the United States: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999-2006

Hearing loss and tinnitus are the two most prevalent service-connected disabilities among U.S. veterans. The number of veterans receiving compensation and services from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for these conditions continues to increase annually. However, the majority of veterans in t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of rehabilitation research and development 2011-01, Vol.48 (5), p.503-516
Main Authors: Folmer, Robert L, McMillan, Garnett P, Austin, Donald F, Henry, James A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Audiometry, Pure-Tone
Auditory Threshold
Ears & hearing
Hearing loss
Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced - epidemiology
Hearing protection
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Noise
Nutrition Surveys
Prevalence
Prevalence studies (Epidemiology)
Surveys
Tinnitus
Tinnitus - epidemiology
United States - epidemiology
Veterans
Young Adult
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Hearing loss and tinnitus are the two most prevalent service-connected disabilities among U.S. veterans. The number of veterans receiving compensation and services from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for these conditions continues to increase annually. However, the majority of veterans in the United States do not use VA medical centers or clinics for healthcare and do not receive VA compensation payments. Therefore, the prevalence of hearing loss and tinnitus among U.S. veterans is unknown. This study used National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data to estimate the prevalence of these auditory conditions among male veterans. Between 1999 and 2006, pure tone audiometric data collected from 845 male veterans were compared with pure tone thresholds collected from 2,086 male nonveterans. We used questionnaire data collected between 1999 and 2004 to calculate and compare the prevalence of tinnitus for 2,174 veterans and 4,995 nonveterans. In general, pure tone thresholds did not differ significantly between veterans and nonveterans for most frequencies tested (500-8,000 Hz). The overall prevalence of tinnitus was greater for veterans than that for nonveterans (p < 0.001), with statistically significant differences in the 50 to 59 and 60 to 69 age groups.
ISSN:0748-7711
1938-1352
DOI:10.1682/JRRD.2010.07.0138