study on use of personal listening devices and its effect on hearing

1. Study Presentation

2. Introduction
• Rapid technological advances have revolutionized personal
listening devices, leading to an electronics market dominated
by Walkman, iPod and other brands of MP3 players.
• 91% of all people on earth have a mobile phone.
• India is the second largest mobile phone user in the world.
70.08% of total population of India uses mobile phones. In
Kerala and Lakshadweep alone there are 34.51 million mobile
phone users3.
• Nowadays even mobile phones come equipped with
earphones and cater a variety of functions like playing music,
videos, movies and also games.

3. • Most of the MP3 players today can produce
sounds up to 120 decibel
• At that level, hearing loss can occur after
only about an hour and 15 minutes.
• The use of earbuds (earphones) placed
directly into the ear can amplify the sound
signals by as much as six to nine dB

4. • Indian Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) reported 10.7% of population
suffering from hearing impairment is due
to earphone use

5. • Serious injuries to pedestrians listening to
headphones have more than tripled
• Researchers reviewed 116 accident cases
from 2004 to 2011 in which injured
pedestrians were documented to be using
headphones

6. • In addition to the structural damage personal
listening devices can cause to the inner ear,
these devices leads to spending more time in
isolation than interacting with others. This can
cause social and emotional problems for
children

7. TITLE OF THE STUDY
Patterns of usage of personal listening
devices (PLDs) and its effect on hearing
acuity among degree students.

8. Purpose of the study
Identify the patterns of usage of personal
listening devices and its effect on hearing
acuity of degree students and to create
awareness regarding the potential harmful
effects of listening to loud noises.

9. Statement of the problem
A study to identify the patterns of usage
of personal listening devices and its effect
on hearing acuity among degree students
of a selected college in Kozhikode district.

10. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
• Assess the patterns of usage of personal
listening devices among degree students
• Assess the hearing acuity of students.

11. • Assess the effect of Personal Listening
Device (PLD) use on hearing acuity
among students.
• Find out the association between hearing
acuity and selected variables.

12. ASSUMPTIONS
• The use of PLD’s is widespread among
degree students
• Continuous use of PLD’s may adversely
affect the hearing acuity.

13. Hypotheses
• H1: There will be significant
association between hearing acuity and
patterns of use of personal listening
devices among students.
• H2: There will be significant
association between hearing acuity and
selected socio personal variables of
students

14. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Literature review was done in the following
areas
• Patterns of use of personal listening
devices
14 literatures.
• Noise induced hearing loss from
recreational noise exposure.
7 literatures.

15. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• Research approach
Non- experimental approach.
• Research design
Descriptive survey design.
• Schematic representation of the study.

17. • Variables : Patterns of usage of personal
listening devices among degree students,
Effect of patterns of usage of personal
listening devices on hearing acuity of
degree students.

18. Inclusion criteria
• Degree students who are willing to
participate in the study.
• Degree students who can read and write
English.

19. Exclusion criteria
• Degree students who are not available
during the period of study.
• Degree students previously diagnosed as
having hearing impairment

20. TOOL 1
• Questionnaire
-Section I Sample characteristics
consisted of 11 items
-Section II
-II A : 8 items , regarding the practices in
use of PLDs
- II B : 6 items regarding the volume of use
of PLDs
- II C : 3 items regarding the duration of
use of PLDs for various purposes

21. • TOOL II -Audiometry test
-The ability to hear between the 0-15dB is
considered to be normal hearing acuity.
- The threshold level between 16-40dB
indicates mild hearing loss.
- between 41- 70dB moderate hearing loss
and
- above 70dB severe hearing loss.

22. • TOOL III – Oto Acoustic Emission Test
- Present
- Absent

23. Analysis and interpretation

24. Figure 4. Distribution of sample based on frequency of
use of personal listening devices.
1%
50.00%
32.50%
16.50%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Never Rarely Frequently Always
Percentage
Frequency of use
percentage

25. Table 6
Distribution of sample based on type of personal
listening device used.
Type of PLDs Frequency Percentage
Earbuds 113 56.5
Canal hones 24 12.0
Bluetooth devices 4 2.0
Over the ear headphones 33 16.5
Headphones and
earbuds
14 7.0
Earbuds and canal
phones
8 4.0
Headphones, earphones
and canal phones
4 2.0

26. Table 11
Distribution of sample based on volume of use
of personal listening devices
VOLUME OF USE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
Use at maximum volume
Never 39 19.5
Rarely 78 39.0
Frequently 48 24.0
Always 35 17.5

27. Figure 7. Distribution of sample based on
percentage of volume of use of personal listening
devices.
11.50%
28.00%
35.00%
25.50%
0-25%
26-50%
51-75%
76-100%

28. Table 12
Distribution of sample based on how long they
have been using personal listening devices
Duration of using a
PLD
Frequency Percentage
<1 month 20 10.0
1-6 months 37 18.5
6 months – 1 year 31 15.5
>1 year 112 56.0

29. Table 14
Distribution of samples based on hearing acuity
as measured by audiometry
Hearing acuity Frequency Percentage
Normal 192 96
Mild hearing loss 8 4

30. Table 15
Distribution of samples based hearing acuity as
measured by Oto Acoustic Emission (OAE
OAE Frequency Percentage
Present 196 98
Absent 4 2

31. Table 16
Distribution of sample based on hearing acuity
based on questionnaire
Hearing acuity
Frequency Percentage
Normal 169 84.5
Abnormal 31 15.5

32. Figure 8. Distribution of samples based on
hearing acuity.
0
20
40
60
80
100
Normal Abnormal
82.5
17.5
Percentage
Hearing acuity

33. Table 15
Association between patterns of use of personal
listening devices and hearing acuity.
Variable Chi square value p value
Frequency of use of PLDs 9.675 0.022*
Volume at which PLD
is used
18.664 0.001***
Duration of use of PLDs 11.942 0.008*
Use of PLDs
for telephonic conversation/day 7.603 0.050*
Use of PLDs for purposes other
than telephonic conversation/
day
4.000 0.261

34. Results and discussions
• Mobile phone is the most commonly used device
(63%) in relation to the listening habits.
• 32.5% of the samples frequently use personal
listening devices and 16.5% always use personal
listening devices
• Most commonly used PLD is ear bud type
(56.5%).
• Majority of the samples used PLDs in both ears
(97%).

35. • A mild change in perception of hearing was experienced
by 70.5 % of the sample and 1% experienced severe
changes in the perception of their hearing.
• Minimal hearing loss as measured by puretone
audiometry and distortion product oto acoustic emission
test was found in 3.5% of the sample.
• A total of 43.5 % of the sample had abnormal hearing
acuity
Contd…

36. Limitations
• As the study sample is limited to 200 and
the sampling technique was conveninent,
generalization of the findings is limited.
• As the study is retrospective the actual
effect cannot be assessed.

37. Thank You