For those of us not in the medical field, making sense of technical jargon can sometimes be confusing. Many doctors, nurses, audiologists and other health practitioners are great at explaining medical terms, but it’s important to be able to feel comfortable with your own medical records. For an older adult living with hearing loss, being able to interpret his or her own audiogram – a graph that shows the results from a hearing test – is a way to gain confidence, take control of hearing health and boost independence.
If you’re new to the hearing loss community or have recently had your hearing tested, here’s some valuable information on what an audiogram shows and how you can read it.
What does it measure?
The audiogram shows results from your hearing test in a graph-like form. Hearing tests measure the two components of hearing: Frequency (or tone) and intensity. Frequency is the speed of the vibrations from sound waves, and it’s measured in hertz (Hz). Sounds that have a higher frequency – such as shrill screams from a toddler – can be higher than 10,000 Hz, and sounds with lower frequency, like rumbling thunder, have frequencies of 100 Hz or lower. We can normally hear anything between 20 and 20,000 Hz, and speech typically falls between 500 and 3,000 Hz.
The second component of hearing that audiograms measure is intensity, or the loudness of a sound. Loudness is measured in decibels (dB). Whispers are about 20 dB and airplane engines can be as high as 180 dB. If our ears are exposed to decibels above 85 for more than a few hours, we can develop hearing loss.
What does it look like?
So, how do frequency and intensity show up on an audiogram? An audiogram is a graph plotted with two separate lines – one for your left ear and one for your right. Along the x-axis on the bottom, you will find the measure of frequency in hertz, and the y-axis measures your hearing (intensity) in decibels, ranging from 0 to 120. Those with normal hearing will have a pretty even line plotted horizontally between 0 and 20 dB. The closer the line is to the top of the chart, the less hearing loss you have. So, for example, the line for those with moderate hearing loss will fall between 41 and 55 across the range of frequencies, and the plotted line for those with severe hearing loss will be between 71 and 90 dB – much closer to the bottom of the audiogram.
What are the next steps?
After your hearing test and your audiogram results, your audiologist will help you decide which hearing loss solutions are best for you, dependent upon your level of hearing loss. Some people prefer to find a strategy for living with hearing loss that does not involve technology, such as reading lips and minimizing background noise. Others decide to try hard of hearing phones with voice recognition technology or other adaptive forms of communication on the market today. There are many options for living with hearing loss, so choose what works best for you.
