Exploring Presbycusis: The Age-Related Hearing Loss Affecting the Elderly

Abstract

Topic: Presbycusis Abstract Presbycusis is a hearing loss problem that mostly affects the elderly. Changes within the inner ear, the middle ear, and along the nerve pathways to the brain cause presbycusis. For this reason, the ear becomes the most affected part of the human body limiting the normal functioning of the entire body system. Presbycusis worsens with age with persons aged 65 years and above remaining as the most affected persons by this health condition. Sir Francis Galton is the mine behind the discovery of presbycusis in the late 19th century. Loss of sensitivity to sounds especially high-pitched and reduced ability to understand speech in a noisy environment as the two serve as the primary symptoms of presbycusis. Self-report, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and pure-tone audiometry (PTA) are the primary approaches to studying presbycusis. Hearing aid use and surgery are the most potent methods of treating and managing presbycusis. Presbycusis has no cure thus the need to stay away from triggers of this condition like noisy environments. Table of Content: Presbycusis Aging comes with some health-related challenges. Presbycusis is among the major health-related conditions that affect people during their old years. Then what is this presbycusis? According to Wang and Jean-Luc (1), presbycusis is an age-related hearing loss that affects adults over 65 years. Unfortunately, this condition takes place gradually making it a challenge to become established in its early stages. It is imperative to note that the gradual loss of hearing affects both ears making it a challenge for the victims to detect some sounds. However, the gradual loss of hearing mostly limits the aged person’s ability to hear high-pitched noises like a microwave beep or a phone ring. Fortunately, the aged person's ability to hear low-pitched sounds remains intact making it possible to communicate with other people thus worsening the effect of presbycusis before the victim notices that they are suffering from a certain hearing problem. Based on Huang and Tang (1179), presbycusis is very common among elderly people and varies in severity ranging from mild to substantial. System Affected by Presbycusis While analyzing the extent of the effect that presbycusis has on the elderly hearing abilities, (Lee, 2) confirmed that this disease remains characterized by audiometric threshold shift, speech-perception challenges in a noisy place, and deterioration in speech understanding. Such characteristics prove a threat to the elderly well-being as the disease though affects the ears does not mean it leaves the other parts of the body in total peace. However, it is wise to analyze the ears as the major affected system within an elderly human’s body. Since this health condition limits hearing acuity, Corti becomes the most affected part of the hearing system (Ciorba et al., 30). Sensory, neural, metabolic, and cochlear are the primary categories of presbycusis. The sensory category originates from degenerating organ of the Corti which evokes hearing loss in the high-frequency range mostly occurring in the middle-aged population. The damaged outer hair cells in 10mm at the basal turn of the cochlear cause this type of presbycusis (Lee 2-3). The author further confirms that neural presbycusis expresses a moderate downward slope of pure tone threshold towards a high-frequency and severe decrease in speech discrimination while metabolic presbycusis reflects hearing loss across all frequency ranges in audiogram (Lee 3). Last but not least, cochlear presbycusis serves as a degenerating change attributed to stiffness of the basal area of the cochlear which remains manifested by low-frequency hearing loss (4). It is also accompanied by unimpaired speech recognition making life quite a challenge for the elderly victim. Brief History Interest in anthropometry led Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) to measure and compare physical attributes in men (Fitzgerald and Robert, 3). It is in this line of exploration that this great researcher employed a whistle as the main determinant of the effect on physical attributes in men to conclude the ongoing research. Galton introduced the eugenic concept assuming that the high-pitched tones might be a special feature specific to each species. In an attempt to confirm the hypothesis, Galton invented a whistle to test the effect of high-pitched tone on different species and noted that the upper hearing threshold in animals differed significantly from other species like a human. However, Galton noted that other than the differing characteristic, humans’ upper hearing threshold in humans regularly depressed with age. It is a conclusion that served as the initial discovery of presbycusis as a threat to hearing abilities in elderly persons with greater effects reported as the victims continued to grow older. Burckhardt-Merian from Switzerland introduced the Galton whistle into otology in 1885 while Zwaardemaker in Utrecht became the first researcher to investigate elderly hearing abilities using the Galton whistle (Fitzgerald and Robert, 3). It is through the investigation that Zwaardemaker coined prebyacusial law which later defined presbycusis as the primary title of the condition (Fitzgerald and Robert, 4). Symptoms One can argue that changes along the nerve pathways to the brain and within the inner and middle ear cause presbycusis. However, aging serves as the major trigger of such changes making the condition a health issue demanding the right interventions (Taneja, 1). Unfortunately, the doctors can only intervene after...