Analysis of potential risk of hearing loss among students using personal audio devices

Background: Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is on the rise, affecting nearly 1.1 billion young people as per the World Health Organization. It is mainly due to exposure to noise in recreational settings for prolonged duration and at high intensity resulting in unsafe listening practices. Aim and Objective: This study aims to analyze the potential risk of audio device usage and hearing loss among the students. Materials and Methods: Hearing loss among students using personal music player with headphones/earphones was assessed using a self-designed audiometry mobile application and followed by a questionnaire to those found to have hearing loss asking for their preferences of personal audio devices, usage in terms of years, duration per day, volume, content, and awareness of NIHL. Results: Among the 3000 students, 3.2% (96) of students were identified with hearing loss and 72% of the total subjects were unaware of NIHL. About 81% (78) were headphones users as compared to 19% (18) earphones users. About 50% of the subjects with hearing loss had reported usage of a personal audio device for more than 6 h per day followed by 30% who used it for 4–6 h, 16% who used it for 2–4 h followed by 4% who used it for 1–2 h per day. About 90% of students used volume settings more than 60% and 10% preferred 60–40% volume settings. About 65% of the subjects were using audio devices for more than 6 years and 16% for