Abstract
BackgroundListening to music through personal listening devices (PLDs) has become more prevalent during last decades. The aim of this study was to evaluate music listening habits through PLDs in adolescents with a smartphone application, and to assess the accuracy of self-reported listening habits.MethodsThis study was embedded in the Generation R Study, a population-based prospective birth cohort in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. A smartphone application for Android operating systems was developed to objectively monitor music listening habits for a period of 35 days. A postal questionnaire was used to subjectively assess listening habits. The level of agreement between the objectively measured and self-reported listening habits were evaluated using weighted kappa coefficients. Data were collected from May 2017 to March 2019.ResultsA total of 311 adolescents aged 12 to 15 years were included, of whom 237 (76.2%) completed the postal questionnaire. The results of the smartphone application showed that the median listening frequency was 2.1 days a week (IQR 1.0–3.4), the median listening time 21.1 min a day (IQR 9.1–53.7), and the mean listening level 54.5% (SD 18.1%). There was a slight to fair agreement between the objectively measured, and self-reported listening habits according to the weighted kappa coefficients (k = 0.179 to 0.364).ConclusionsThe results of the current study suggest that self-reported measures of listening habits are not always accurate. We consider a smartphone application to monitor listening habits of added value in future research investigating the possible damaging effects of PLDs on hearing acuity.Graphical abstract
Highlights
Listening to music through personal listening devices (PLDs) has become more prevalent during last decades
We developed a smartphone application that was able to monitor listening to music through PLDs for a period of 35 days in a large population of adolescents
Listening habits will be examined, and we aim to investigate the potential risk of hearing loss from PLDs by combining data from the smartphone application and audiometric results
Summary
Listening to music through personal listening devices (PLDs) has become more prevalent during last decades. The aim of this study was to evaluate music listening habits through PLDs in adolescents with a smartphone application, and to assess the accuracy of self-reported listening habits. There is a growing concern about the potential risk leisure noise exposure poses on hearing, especially in young people [3]. As sound at a sufficient intensity and duration can cause damage to the inner ear, millions of people who are listening to music with their PLDs are potentially at risk of developing hearing problems [16, 17]. In order to assess this potential risk of noise-induced hearing loss due to PLDs, it is essential to evaluate the listening habits of PLD users in everyday life
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