More than 10 million elderly Chinese suffer from hearing problems, accounting for nearly 7 percent of all senior citizens, an official with the Ministry of Civil Administration said in Qingdao, Shandong Province, Tuesday.

The fifth national census, conducted in 2000, showed that there were 143 million people older than 60 in China, and that poor hearing had become a major health problem among elderly people, Zhang Shifeng, an official in charge of social welfare under the civil administration authority, said at a charity ceremony held in this port city of eastern China's Shandong Province.

China has the largest elderly population in the world and has become what experts call an aging society, Zhang said at the launching ceremony for an aid program for deaf senior citizens.

A medical campaign has been launched across the country to help elderly people prevent and cure hearing problems. The deaf-aid donation program was started in 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2005)