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

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: 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