Analysis of the Actual One-Month Usage of Portable Listening Devices in College Students.

Gibbeum Kim,Changgeun Song,Woojae Han,Jihun Shin

doi:10.3390/ijerph18168550

Abstract

Although contemporary researchers are concerned about overexposure of portable listening devices (PLD) for adolescents and young adults who often prefer listening to music at high levels for a long time, many of these studies have focused on either comparing sound pressure levels of various kinds of earphones or evaluating the recognition of noise-included hearing loss and listening habits through surveys. Further still, current criteria were developed for occupational noise-induced hearing loss, so there are only a few published guidelines for hearing insults due to recreational noise exposure. The present study, therefore, measures actual listening levels and PLD time in college students using a real-time measurement system and applying that gathered scientific data to the internationally recommended noise exposure standards. Thirty-four college students were asked to listen to music similar to their daily lifestyles for 4-weeks. After installing the application, the Google account that linked to the user’s mobile phone was logged into the server communication. When a subject listened to music, the average and maximum listening levels and listening time could then be recognized as his or her Google account ID and stored in the database for analysis. User data was measured at 1-s intervals and delivered to the main server system every 5 s. The data were analyzed as LZeq for mean levels and LCpeak for maximum levels, and also for PLD use time. The mean of the preferred listening level was 68–70 dB SPL for 4 weeks with long enough break times. That is, the listening levels of college students were not high enough to induce instant hearing loss when they used PLD. However, there was a large individual difference in the listening levels and use times. When applied to three recommended noise exposure criteria, the number of exceeded subjects also differed from 0 to 56.72% depending on the criterion. We thus suggest that appropriate and standardized criteria for music-induced hearing loss might be proposed for recreational PLD users.

Highlights

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.With the recent advances in technology and ever-increasing use of portable listening devices (PLDs), many researchers have warned of the potential risk of noise-induced hearing loss there were users of Walkman and telephone headsets in the past.Since just 10 years ago, 90% of teenagers and college students have had PLDs, includingMP3 players and iPods [1]
The present study aims to closely monitor the listening levels and time for college students who use PLDs the most, while tracking their listening pattern of long term for 4 weeks through an elaborately developed application, and analyzing the levels of listening volumes depending on their life patterns
Among the 34 subjects, one who listened to the music at the lowest intensity was noted at 57.32 dB SPL (Sub 22 in Table 1), and the person who listened to it at the highest intensity was noted at 83.43 dB SPL (Sub 19)

Summary

Introduction

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.With the recent advances in technology and ever-increasing use of portable listening devices (PLDs), many researchers have warned of the potential risk of noise-induced hearing loss there were users of Walkman and telephone headsets in the past.Since just 10 years ago, 90% of teenagers and college students have had PLDs, includingMP3 players and iPods [1]. With the recent advances in technology and ever-increasing use of portable listening devices (PLDs), many researchers have warned of the potential risk of noise-induced hearing loss there were users of Walkman and telephone headsets in the past. Since just 10 years ago, 90% of teenagers and college students have had PLDs, including. MP3 players and iPods [1]. Smartphones with a free MP3 player function currently are one of several used PLDs types [2]. Such high accessibility to PLDs have made it easier to listen published maps and institutional affil-.

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Discussion

Conclusion