A Single Strategy for Sensory Needs - The Highland Council

Three out of four
people who
experience a
hearing loss
are over 60 and
84% of people
over 85 have a
significant
hearing loss.
RNID
Recent RNIB figures suggest the following breakdown:
Table 2: Number of Deaf People in Scotland
(Source: Hearing In Adults by A. Davis)
Level of deafness 16-60 years Over 60 years Total
Mild/moderate deafness 203,000 498,000 701,000
Severe/profound deafness 9,000 48,000 57,000
All deagrees of deafness 212,000 546,000 758,000
There around 758,000 adults with some degree of hearing loss in Scotland.
The recent NHS Audiology Review suggests that the epidemiology of hearing loss can be
usefully categorised separately for children and adults. The report highlights for example, that
although the population prevalence of permanent childhood hearing impairment is low at 13
per 10,000 live births, the consequence on language acquisition, all aspects of communication
and pervasive aspects of child development are very severe. The report further highlights that
hearing impairments are common in adulthood with almost 1 in 5 affected with difficulties in
understanding speech, particularly in noisy backgrounds.
Figure 1 below shows a population prevalence of hearing impairment as a function of age and shows
significant increase with increasing age.
35
18
71% of deaf
and hard of
hearing people
feel isolated by
their deafness.
SCOD
Percent of Population
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
25 to 39 dB HL (mild)
40 to 64 dB HL (moderate)
65 to 94 dB HL (severe)
>=95 dB HL (profound)
18 to 30 31 to 40 41 to 50 51 to 60 61 to 70 71 to 80 Age group (years)