Hearing Loss/Deafness Causes & Prevention High-Frequency Hearing Loss Effects and Causes By Jamie Berke Jamie Berke Facebook Jamie Berke is a deafness and hard of hearing expert. Learn about our editorial process Updated on March 08, 2021 Medically reviewed by Benjamin F. Asher, MD Medically reviewed by Benjamin F. Asher, MD Facebook LinkedIn Benjamin F. Asher, MD, FACS, is board-certified in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. For 30 years, he has worked at Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound and the Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinic. Learn about our Medical Expert Board Print Table of Contents View All Table of Contents Overview Risk Level Causes Prevention Management Treatments People with high-frequency hearing loss can't hear sounds in higher frequencies, such as sounds like the letters s, h, and f. This can make it more difficult for you to understand speech. BSIP / UIG / Getty Images On an audiogram, the frequencies go from low to high frequencies. The definition of high frequency varies. Some experts consider 2000 Hertz (2kHz) to be high frequency. The high-frequency ranges go from 2000 Hertz to 8000 Hertz. (1000 Hz is considered to be mid-frequency.) Overview A high-frequency hearing loss will affect a person's ability to understand speech. This happens because the consonants (s, h, f) are high-frequency sounds that range from 1,500 to 6,000 Hertz. Losing hearing in those frequencies means that those sounds are harder to discern. For children, this can mean a negative impact on their education due to the inability to understand speech in the classroom. Risk Level In an effort to find out how many people have this type of hearing loss, researchers compared data from the 1959-1962 National Health Examination Study to data from the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Study. Using statistical analysis, they found that adults in the more recent time period heard better compared to adults in the older study. In the study of teenagers, researchers compared data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for 1988-1994, to data from the 2005-2006 NHANES survey. All the participants were 12 to 19 years old. The researchers found that from 2005 to 2006, unilateral hearing loss was more common and high-frequency hearing loss was more prevalent among the teenagers than compared to the teens studied in the late 1980s and early 90s. (The researchers defined high frequency as 3000 to 8000 Hertz.) The prevalence of high-frequency hearing loss was just 12.8 percent in the earlier group; but from 2005 to 2006, it was 16.4 percent. This was considered to be "significantly higher" by the researchers. In their analysis, the researchers did not find any difference in levels of exposure to noise between the two surveys but pointed out that teenagers tend to underreport and underestimate their level of exposure to noise. Therefore, the jump in high-frequency hearing loss among teenagers could be an indication of an increase in exposure to noise, resulting in noise-induced hearing loss. Causes Noise is not the only cause of high-frequency hearing loss. There are many causes. Causes include aging (presbycusis), genetics, ototoxicity (such as chemotherapy drugs), and diseases and syndromes. There are also suspected causes such as diabetes. Prevention There are ways to prevent high-frequency hearing loss. People concerned about risks can consider various methods of hearing protection, such as earplugs. Management Hearing aids can take the higher frequency sounds and lower them. There are two different ways to do this. The first way, called frequency transposition, takes the higher frequency energies and moves them to a lower frequency, which results in a mixing of the transposed (moved) sound and the non-transposed lower frequency sound. The other way, called nonlinear frequency compression, uses a compression ratio on the high-frequency sound to lower it but does not move it, thereby avoiding mixing with lower frequencies. If you believe you are experiencing hearing loss of this type, seeing an audiologist is crucial. Treatments High-frequency hearing loss can be managed by using hearing aids and cochlear implants. Of course, learning sign language and lipreading skills also can help. 7 Sources Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Hornsby BW, Ricketts TA. The effects of hearing loss on the contribution of high- and low-frequency speech information to speech understanding. II. Sloping hearing loss. J Acoust Soc Am. 2006;119(3):1752–1763. doi:10.1121/1.2161432 Moeller MP, Tomblin JB. An Introduction to the Outcomes of Children with Hearing Loss Study. Ear Hear. 2015;36 Suppl 1(0 1):4S–13S. doi:10.1097/AUD.0000000000000210 Hoffman HJ, Dobie RA, Ko C-W, Themann CL, Murphy WJ. Americans Hear as Well or Better Today Compared With 40 Years Ago: Hearing Threshold Levels in the Unscreened Adult Population of the United States, 1959–1962 and 1999–2004. Ear and Hearing. 2010;31(6):725-734. doi:10.1097/aud.0b013e3181e9770e Cunningham LL, Tucci DL. Hearing Loss in Adults. N Engl J Med. 2017;377(25):2465–2473. doi:10.1056/NEJMra1616601 Kraaijenga VJC, Ramakers GGJ, Grolman W. The Effect of Earplugs in Preventing Hearing Loss From Recreational Noise Exposure. JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery. 2016;142(4):389. doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2015.3667 Simpson A. Frequency-lowering devices for managing high-frequency hearing loss: a review. Trends Amplif. 2009;13(2):87–106. doi:10.1177/1084713809336421 Glista D, Scollie S. The Use of Frequency Lowering Technology in the Treatment of Severe-to-Profound Hearing Loss: A Review of the Literature and Candidacy Considerations for Clinical Application. Semin Hear. 2018;39(4):377–389. doi:10.1055/s-0038-1670700 Additional Reading Developmental Disabilities: Hearing Loss. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By Jamie Berke Jamie Berke is a deafness and hard of hearing expert. See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Medical Expert Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? Other Helpful Report an Error Submit