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Prevalence of hearing loss in Northern and Southern Germany

Prävalenz von Schwerhörigkeit in Nord- und Süd-Deutschland

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Abstract

Background

The HÖRSTAT study conducted in Northwest Germany found hearing impairment in approximately 16% of adults when applying the World Health Organization (WHO) criterion. However, the robustness of extrapolations to a national level might be questioned, as the epidemiological data were collected on a regional level.

Methods

Independently from HÖRSTAT, the “Hearing in Germany” study examined adult hearing in Aalen, a town located in Southwest Germany. Both cross-sectional studies were based on stratified random samples from the general population. The average pure-tone threshold shift at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz (PTA4), the prevalence of hearing impairment (WHO criterion: PTA4 in the better ear >25), and hearing aid uptake were compared. Data from the Aalen and HÖRSTAT studies were pooled (n = 3105) to extrapolate to the prevalence and the degree of hearing impairment for the years 2015, 2020, and 2025.

Results

Both studies yielded very similar results for PTA4. Weighted for official population statistics, the prevalence of hearing impairment according to the WHO criterion is 16.2% in adults, thus affecting 11.1 million persons in Germany. Owing to demographic changes, the prevalence is expected to increase in the medium term by around 1% per 5‑year period. With a similar degree of hearing loss, hearing aid provision differs from place to place.

Conclusion

When adjusted for gender and age to the European Standard Population, the prevalence of hearing impairment observed both in HÖRSTAT and the Aalen sample is considerably lower than reported for international studies. Since the analysis refers to cross-sectional data only, possible cohort effects are not considered in the prevalence projection.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all participants and experimenters for their participation, and ENT Prof. Karsten Plotz and the local hearing aid acousticians for their support in training. Language services were provided by www.stels-ol.de.

Funding

The supplement containing this article is not sponsored by industry.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hearing Technology and Audiology, Jade University of Applied Sciences and Cluster of Excellence „Hearing4All“, Oldenburg, Germany

    P. von Gablenz & I. Holube

  2. Kempten (Allgäu), Germany

    E. Hoffmann

Authors
  1. P. von Gablenz
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  2. E. Hoffmann
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  3. I. Holube
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. von Gablenz.

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Conflict of interest

P. von Gablenz and I. Holube declare that data collection in HÖRSTAT was funded by the Lower Saxony Department of Science and Culture and the European Regional Funding (EFRE). Further analysis was financed from the research fund of the Jade University of Applied Sciences and the federal resources of Niedersächsisches Vorab by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony within the research focus “Hearing in everyday life (HALLO).” The Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutscher Hörgeräte-Akustiker (FDHA) financed the supplementary survey on the German short-form of the SSQ questionnaire. Auritec provided portable Ear 2.0 audiometers. E. Hoffmann declares that the Federal Armed Forces financed the study “Hearing in Germany” and gave further support by providing a mobile examination unit from WTD 91 (Meppen, Germany).

All examinations described in this manuscript were approved by the appropriate Ethics Commission and in accordance with national law and the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (in the current, revised version). Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

Additional information

Information on partial publication: Parts of this article were presented at the 19th Conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Audiologie (2016) in Hanover, Germany.

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von Gablenz, P., Hoffmann, E. & Holube, I. Prevalence of hearing loss in Northern and Southern Germany. HNO 65 (Suppl 2), 130–135 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00106-016-0318-4

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