1. Objective Measurement of Listening Device Use and Its Relation to Hearing Acuity
- Author
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Simone P. C. Koenraads, Geert Geleijnse, Danique E. Paping, Carlijn M. P. le Clercq, Marc P. van der Schroeff, Jantien L. Vroegop, and Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery
- Subjects
Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Relation (database) ,Audiology ,Smartphone application ,Cohort Studies ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Noise exposure ,Hearing ,medicine ,Humans ,Active listening ,Prospective Studies ,030212 general & internal medicine ,030223 otorhinolaryngology ,business.industry ,Objective measurement ,MP3-Player ,Device use ,Noise ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced ,Otorhinolaryngology ,Hearing acuity ,Female ,Surgery ,business ,Music - Abstract
Objectives: To examine whether adolescents exceed recommended noise exposure limits when using personal listening devices (PLDs) and to investigate the relationship between objectively measured PLD use and hearing thresholds Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: This study was embedded within an ongoing prospective birth cohort study in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Data were collected from May 2017 to September 2019. Methods: A smartphone application was developed to measure daily noise exposure from PLDs. Listening habits were monitored among 314 adolescents with a mean age of 13 years 7 months (SD, 5 months), of whom 51.6% were male. Hearing acuity was measured by pure tone audiometry, and tympanometry was performed in both ears. Results: Within the study group, 2.2% adolescents exceeded the recommended daily noise dose (85 dBA as an 8-hour time-weighted average) among all days when the application was active and 9.9% when among only the listening days. No significant correlation was found between the daily noise dose from PLDs and pure tone thresholds. Conclusions: The majority of adolescents exhibited listening habits that could be considered safe. As noise-induced hearing loss develops slowly over time, it could be that the effects of PLD use on hearing are not evident yet in this young population with a relatively short duration of PLD use.
- Published
- 2022