Which type of hearing loss is most common?

Sensorineural hearing loss is regarded as the most common type of hearing loss. This type occurs due to damage to the inner ear (the cochlea) or to the auditory nerve, which affects how sound signals are transmitted to the brain. It can result from various factors including aging, exposure to loud noise, genetics, or medical conditions.

While conductive hearing loss, which involves problems in the outer or middle ear affecting sound transmission, and mixed hearing loss, which is a combination of conductive and sensorineural, do occur, they are generally less prevalent in the overall population. Symptomatic hearing loss is not a recognized category of hearing loss in the same terms as the others, as it typically refers to hearing loss that accompanies other medical conditions rather than describing a standalone type of hearing loss.

Therefore, sensorineural hearing loss's higher prevalence is attributed to its connection with widespread factors like aging and environmental impacts, making it the most common category among the options provided.