Prevalencia de hipoacusia en el adulto mayor del centro fonoaudiológico Oídos, Cuenca- Ecuador, periodo 2019- 2021

Abstract

Background: hearing loss is a disease with a global distribution that occurs at all ages; however, an increase in the number of cases is noted from the sixth decade of life. It is essential to know the clinical and demographic characteristics of this population in order to provide the best possible care. Objective: to determine the prevalence of hearing loss in older adults at the Oídos speech therapy center in the period 2019-2021.Method: a descriptive study of 120 people was carried out. The statistics used for the quantitative variables will be central tendency (mean) and dispersion (standard deviation) while the rest of the variables will be presented with frequencies and percentages. Results: a prevalence of hearing loss of 68.9% is evident. The age group of young older adults predominates with 47.5%. 63.3% of the population were men. 62.5% of people live in an urban area. The most frequently observed antecedents were pharmacological (23.3%) and trauma (17.5%). The predominant comorbidity is hypertension with 37.5%. Most participants have sensorineural (56.7%), severe (35%) and bilateral (80.8%) hearing loss. The clinical characteristics are distributed similarly in both sexes. A greater number of trauma histories are observed in older adults. Conclusions: an epidemiological profile similar to that of other studies is evident. As additional data, an increase in trauma history is observed in older adults