Collapsed ear canals in the elderly nursing home population.
In a sample of 104 elderly nursing home residents, collapsed ear canals were found in 41% of the subjects. Age emerged as a significant factor in these data since collapsed ear canals were significantly more common among the nursing home residents that were age 80 or over. Based on these findings, mean hearing threshold data on this population will overestimate hearing loss by 2-8 dB when collapsing ear canals are not considered.
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D001299:Audiometry / Q000295:instrumentation; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D004424:Ear Canal / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male