Personal Music Systems: Do They Pose Risk for Hearing Loss?

Abstract

The proliferation of personal music systems in recent years raises concern because of the tremendous quantity of audio stimulation that users – especially children are exposed to. Hearing loss induced by personal music systems may evolve into a significant social and public health problem in future years. Currently, in our lab we are assessing the relationship among music listening habits of young adults, output sound pressure levels of different personal music systems and their effect on the auditory system, using behavioral and physiological measures. Our results show that about 66% of young adults listen to music using personal music systems for more than 1 hour a day. About 27% of these individuals report some kind of ontological problems. Measurement of output sound pressure levels of personal music system showed that about 20% of users listen to music at sufficiently high levels to cause permanent hearing loss. Pure tone audiogram and otoacoustic emissions revealed that listening to music through personal music system at preferred volume control settings did not result in “clinically significant” elevation of hearing thresholds or reduction of otoacoustic emissions amplitudes but caused subtle pre-clinical damage to the auditory system and over the years such behavior may be hazardous to hearing.