A 10-year and 5-year longitudinal study of the hearing threshold of the aged was performed during 1977-1987 and 1982-1987. The results showed that the annual hearing loss was 1.0dB in the 10-year group, 1.03dB in the 5-year group for males and 0.7dB in the 5-year group for females. Annual hearing loss in the aged with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cerebral arteriosclerosis and diabetes was much higher than that in the healthy ones (P less than 0.05). The rates of hearing loss between 60 and 70 years of age was not significantly different among the healthy males (P greater than 0.05). In the 5-year group the hearing loss at 4-8k Hz was much milder in the healthy females than in the healthy male s (P less than 0.05).