Ear and hearing health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2025

Measured hearing loss - Australian Eye and Ear Health Survey (AEEHS)

Overview

Overall, 49% (225) of First Nations survey participants aged 50 and over reported bilateral hearing loss for the 2022-25 period, consisting of over a third (145) with a slight hearing impairment,13.9% (64) with moderate hearing impairment, and 3.7% (17) with severe or profound hearing impairment.

After age-adjustment among the 2022–25 AEEHS population aged 50 and over:

• 42.8% of Indigenous participants had any bilateral hearing impairment, compared with 39.4% of non-Indigenous participants.
• 14.3% of Indigenous participants had moderate or worse hearing impairment (better ear) compared to 13.2% non-Indigenous participants – not statistically different
• only a marginally greater proportion of Indigenous than non-Indigenous participants had slight, moderate and severe or profound bilateral hearing impairment.

Note however none of these differences observed were statistically significant (Figure PREVALENCE 6).

Age

Bilateral hearing impairment among 2022–25 AEEHS participants aged 50 and over was strongly associated with increasing age, for both First Nations and non-Indigenous. The proportion of any bilateral hearing impairment for First Nations participants increased from 31.7% to 45.6%, 65.3% and 83.3% among those aged 50–59, 60–69, 70–79 and 80+ years respectively. The proportion among non-Indigenous participants rose similarly. 

The proportion of any bilateral hearing impairment was also higher among First Nations participants compared to non-Indigenous participants in age groups 50–59, 60–69, and 70–79 years (Figure PREVALENCE 7).

Sex

The proportion of 2022–25 AEEHS participants with bilateral hearing impairment was considerably higher in males than in females, in both First Nations and non-Indigenous groups. 

Among First Nations participants, 58.5% of males had any bilateral hearing impairment, compared to 39.7% of females and the proportion was higher across all severity levels although this difference was only statistically significant for ‘slight’ hearing impairment (Figure PREVALENCE 8).