Login / Signup

Black Older Americans Have Lower Prevalence of Hearing Loss Than Their White Peers: Findings From Two Large Nationally Representative Surveys.

ZhiDi DengSenyo AgbeyakaEsme Fuller-Thomson
Published in: Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR (2021)
Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate Black-White differences associated with hearing loss among older adults living in the United States. Method Secondary data analysis was conducted using the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) with a replication analysis of the 2016 ACS. The ACS is an annual nationally representative survey of Americans living in community settings and institutions. The sample size of older Americans (age 65+ years) in 2017 was 467,789 non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs) and 45,105 non-Hispanic Blacks (NHBs). In the 2016 ACS, there were 459,692 NHW and 45,990 NHB respondents. Measures of hearing loss, age, race/ethnicity, education level, and household income were based on self-report. Data were weighted to adjust for nonresponse and differential selection probabilities. Results The prevalence of hearing loss was markedly higher among older NHWs (15.4% in both surveys) in comparison with NHBs (9.0% in 2017 and 9.4% in 2016, both ethnic differences p < .001). In the 2017 ACS, the age- and sex-adjusted odds of hearing loss were 69% higher for NHWs compared with NHBs, which increased to 91% higher odds when household income and education level were also taken into account (OR = 1.91; 95% confidence interval [CI; 1.85, 1.97]). Findings from the 2016 ACS were very similar (e.g., 65+ fully adjusted OR = 1.81; 95% CI [1.76, 1.87]). Conclusions NHWs have a much higher prevalence and almost double the odds of hearing loss compared with NHBs. Unfortunately, the ACS survey does not allow us to explore potential causal mechanisms behind this association.
Keyphrases