# Patterns and Severity of Hearing Loss in Patients Undergoing Pure Tone Audiometry in Eastern Nepal: An Observational Study

## TL;DR

This study in Nepal found that most patients tested had some hearing loss, with mild cases being most common and sensorineural loss increasing with age.

## Contribution

The study provides new demographic and severity data on hearing loss in Nepal, highlighting age and gender patterns.

## Key findings

- 75.8% of 3,468 patients had some degree of hearing loss, with mild loss being the most common.
- Sensorineural hearing loss increased with age, reaching 80.88% in those over 80 years.
- Conductive hearing loss was more frequent in younger patients and females.

## Abstract

There is limited evidence describing the demographic patterns of hearing loss in the Nepali context. This study aimed to analyze the audiometrie profiles of patients undergoing pure tone audiometry in a tertiary care centre of Eastern Nepal.

A retrospective analysis was conducted on all patients undergoing pure tone audiometry at B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Nepal, between April 2023 and July 2024. Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Committee (IRC-163-081-82). Census sampling was used, and data on demographics and audiometric profiles were compiled in Microsoft Excel and analyzed with SPSS version 25.

Among 3,468 patients (mean age: 42 years, SD ± 20.27 years, M:F ratio 1:1.2), 2629 (75.8%) exhibited some degree of hearing loss. Mild hearing loss was observed in 1225 patients (35.32%). Sensorineural hearing loss was seen in 1010 (32.21%) male vs 1130 (29.77%) female ears and conductive hearing loss was seen in 476 (15.18%) male vs 620 (16.33%) female ears. Sensorineural hearing loss increased from 17 (6.59%) in children under 10 years to 165 (80.88%) in age 80 and above, while conductive hearing loss declined from 87 (33.72%) in those under 10 to 9 (4.41%) in above 80 years.

In this cohort of participants, three-quarters exhibited some degree of hearing loss, with mild loss being more common. Sensorineural loss increased with age and predominant in males, while conductive loss was more frequent in younger patients and females.