The effects on hearing from portable cassette players: A follow-up study

Abstract

The high-frequency hearing loss (3–8 kHz) in 230 male and 238 female subjects (age 16) was compared concerning their habits of listening to portable cassette players (PCPs). In the group that listened to PCPs daily, we found fewer subjects with high-frequency hearing loss compared to the group that never listened to PCPs. In a temporary threshold shift (TTS) study, three groups of subjects with different listening habits to music were exposed to 1 3 octave band noise (2 kHz). These groups participated in a TTS study on another occasion, on which they listened to music from PCPs at a high but comfortable level for 1 hour. Together with the music exposure, the sound pressure level ( SPL) was measured in the external auditory canal with a probe-provided mini-microphone (MMP). There was no significant difference in TTS between groups from the noise exposure. There were significant differences in listening levels and in the resulting TTS between groups. The noise exposure resulted in significantly higher TTS than the music exposure at comparable exposure levels.