A degradation diagnosis method for simply performing degradation diagnosis
of a gas sensor such as a hydrogen sensor. The hydrogen sensor has a
reference detector member and common detector member, with each detector
member respectively constituted of a detector element and temperature
compensating element that form a pair. Power is normally supplied to the
common detector member, which performs concentration detection of the
hydrogen gas. When performing degradation diagnosis of this common
detector member, concentration detection is performed simultaneously by
each detector member for the gas of the prescribed hydrogen concentration
by supplying power to both the common detector member and reference
detector member and comparing the output value of the common detector
member and the output value of the reference detector member.