Determining hearing loss in percentages

Hearing loss is not measured in percentages because normal can be less than 0 and people like me have hearing losses greater than 100dB. Since the scale isn’t 0-100 and thus isn’t a percentage I’m going to make a wild guess that you have normal or near normal hearing in the low frequencies that then drops off the higher pitched you go.

The problem with hearing aids is that once you loose a certain percentage of cochlear hair cells a sound can be heard but will never be clear. Once you loose even more hearing you loose the ability to detect sound and all clarity.

Your audiologist probably meant that hearing aids won’t allow you to be at 100% of your hearing but they will give you 50% benefit. Before I got cochlear implants my speech understanding (which is a percentage) was 11% with hearing aids so a 50% increase would get me up to 22% speech understanding. Edited maths the correct 50% increase is 16.5%

But isn’t the explanation of hearing loss measurement great?

To my way of thinking @deafstudent a 50% increase in overall hearing performance from 11% WRS would give 16.5%… Mind you, maths was never a strong point for me! Cheers Kev

Thank you @deafstudent

Yeah Rick, I have often found that percentages are easily miscalculated…It is a very simple mistake to make, but it’s an honest mistake, and easily rectified. Cheers Kev

My hearing was damaged in the 60’s. I’ve worn hearing aids since the 90’s without satisfaction. Recently had an audiogram. The Audiologist rated my hearing loss as severe. Question: how does one determine in terms of precise percentages one’s hearing loss? I was informed that the most powerful h.a. might provide a 50% improvement though no estimate of loss in percentages was provided. Thank you.

Thank you for replying, Rick. As accurately s possible I’ve created an audiogram.

No, I wouldn’t say the explanation of hearing loss estimate is a good time. It’s helpful and I surely appreciate your effort. But I don’t know where to go at this point. An estimation of loss is required for a source. Years ago another Audiologist rated the loss at 70%. This Audiologist said I understand 5% of spoken word. It’s the way it goes. Thank you again.

Ordinarily @Bumper you have a “Mild to Severe hearing loss” forget percentages, they do not equate with hearing loss… But, in principle, your loss should be fairly easy to get a good or reasonable fit, but you were unaided for 30 years or so, and that could possibly make a massive difference? Effectively starving your auditory system of certain sound/sounds the brain over time forgets these sounds and words, because it wasn’t being stimulated, you may have to start a relearning process with a decent set of well fitted aids? Now if you are saying you are only understanding a very low percentage of words (Aided)? Then that 30 years of being unaided, may have taken its toll? Look at my Audiogram, it’s a severe/profound loss, but I hear fairly well, simply because, I was aided from 6 months after my loss, and that was 30 odd years ago… Perhaps, as I am just a layman, @Um_bongo or @Neville might give their professional opinions on your loss please? The only other reason I can think of might be APD (Auditory Processing Disorder) but, I know absolutely nothing on that subject… Good Luck in finding a solution. Cheers Kev.

As others have noted, hearing loss is not described in terms of percentages. But degree of disability might be, and there are various formulas for this, which involve inputting data from audiograms, WRS, etc. The exact formula will depend on who is asking for the information, though. They should provide the formula they use.

@Bumper said:

But I don’t know where to go at this point. An estimation of loss is required for a source. Years ago another Audiologist rated the loss at 70%. This Audiologist said I understand 5% of spoken word. It’s the way it goes. Thank you again.

I missed this information earlier. It is helpful for us trying to help you. Are you being asked what percentage hearing loss you have for an insurance claim or similar?

Could you tell us what brand and model hearing aids you have? Also tell us what comes or molds you are using.

We tend to try and help people hear better. That’s usually our goal.

Thanks

I omitted the hearing aid information. They are Starkey’s. They were molded to fit. Not only did they not increase hearing ability, they impaired hearing ability. I heard less, understood less. Adjustments did not improve them. They were stored for several years when I became very sick. Unable to communicate with hospital staff, the Starkeys were delivered to hospital. They were inoperable. Hospital furnished a headset equipped unit which worked. Later, I returned the Starkeys for repair. Inserted, they emitted two tones in rapid succession sounding every several seconds. Adjusting in ears, inspecting and cleaning did not remedy the beeping problem. Given their failure and the recent beeping, they’ve been returned to storage.

Are you anywhere near a Costco? They use best practices to fit hearing aids and they carry top of the line aids. The prices are good and the return period is the best around.

I hate to hear you say life will be quiet and alone. We understand that situation well here.

Yes, modern audiology does not calculate a “percentage loss”. Back in the 1960s the AMA did have a calculation for it, but Bumper’s current loss would only be 48.75% using that formula [(PTA4-25)*1.5). The VA has it’s own calculation. I suppose it really comes down to what insurance body or whatever is trying to come up with a number and what they want to incorporate into it. Sometimes ENTs will just eyeball the audiogram as say “eh, approximately 50% space above and below thresholds. . . 50% loss”.

Per current standards, Bumper’s loss is “mild sloping to severe”. Even though modern audiology does not calculate precentage loss, there certainly are percentages that float about and can be useful. The word recognition score is often used, but in that case 70% is pretty decent. But word recognition scores are done at a very high volume and do not represent day-to-day performance. Speech intelligibility index (SII) is sometimes a nicer measure of how much audible speech there is at an average conversational volume. If we were looking at that Bumper’s left ear, for example, he would have an unaided SII of about 26%. A well-fit pair of hearing aids might get Bumper up to around 50-73% SII, but note that SII is a measure of audibility not performance; the brain is good at filling in the gaps. An SII of >60% usually translates to an aided word recognition (in ideal situations) around 80% and sentence recognition (adding context) can be better. In ideal situations. Distance, noise, and reverberation are another matter.

I would probably agree with Bumper that 70% disability seems too high, or maybe there was a miscommunication back in the day. Certainly too much hearing loss to not wear hearing aids, however.

Thank you, Kev. Yes, I’ve been unaided for 41 years. I now understand that percentage of loss cannot be precisely made, perhaps only as a rule of thumb or guesstimate. Audiologist said something about a 60-decibel loss. I wanted to exit a.s.a.p. and did not request clarification. Yes, I sure would like a set of good fitting hearing aids. I’ve purchased and returned several sets of over-the-ear hearing aids. Wearing glasses, hands cursed with missing parts and med engineered metal parts, plus cursed awfulritis led to damaging over-the-ear hearing aids. In-the-ear, though not in the canal hearing aids do not appear to possess the power needed, says the Audiologist. At this point I should return to step one and seek another Audiologist. Be well.