Personal Music Devices: An Assessment of User Profile and Potential Hazards

Objectives: To profile the use of personal music devices (PMDs) in the study cohort, evaluate their output levels, and assess the users with regard to listening habits, symptomatology and hearing thresholds. Study design: A randomised prospective study including 500 individuals aged between 16 and 30 years. Methods: A questionnaire-based assessment included their demographic profile, PMD usage history and symptomatology and then they were classified into high (286) and low risk (214) groups. Results: The average weekly usage of PMDs was 5.39 days/week, mean volume was 4.88, which increased to 5.9 in noisy areas, and average output used was 66.04 dB. Evaluation by pure tone audiometry (PTA) showed average hearing loss of 21.35 dB in the high risk group. Conclusions: In total, 57.2% of the individuals included in this study demonstrated high risk behaviour for use of PMDs. Those with risky listening behaviour showed audiometric evidence of early noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).