Review and special article
Young People’s Exposure to Loud Music: A Summary of the Literature

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2007.03.016Get rights and content

Objectives

This descriptive summary of the literature provides an overview of the available studies (published before October 2006) on sociodemographic, psychosocial, and other correlates of risk and protective behaviors for hearing loss in young people aged 12 to 25 years.

Methods

Publications were identified by a structured search in PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science, and by scrutinizing the reference lists of relevant articles. The protection motivation theory was used as the theoretical framework for categorizing the psychosocial correlates.

Results

Thirty-three papers were included that identified several sociodemographic and psychosocial correlates, such as age, gender, school level, ethnicity, music preference, physical activity, social influence, and free supply of hearing protection.

Conclusions

For the development of effective interventions we recommend theory-based longitudinal studies among those frequently exposed to loud music to assess these correlates in greater depth.

Introduction

With the massive growth in popularity of portable MP3 players, exposure to high noise levels has increased dramatically, and millions of young people are potentially putting themselves at risk for permanent hearing loss every time they listen to their favorite music.1 Music-induced hearing loss may evolve into a significant social and public health problem.2, 3, 4

Because permanent hearing loss may influence communication and behavioral skills, it can adversely affect education, social interactions, and quality of life.5 Furthermore, it is also a growing social problem as more and more young people are limited in their choice of or even rejected from jobs because of preventable hearing loss.6

On average, people in the group aged 14 to 20 years listen to over 3 hours of music per day.4 Much of their listening time is spent in relatively private environments exercising direct control over the length of time and sound level at which music is played.7 This means that an important part of the risk among young people is related to personal behavioral choices; therefore, changes in these risky sound exposure behaviors are needed for prevention of music-induced hearing loss in youth.

For systematic development of interventions to induce behavior changes, insight into important and modifiable mediators or determinants of the behavior is necessary.8 To date, no structured overview of potential determinants of music-induced, hearing-loss risk or preventive behaviors is available. In order to identify important target groups and mediators for hearing-loss prevention interventions, an explorative literature overview is provided, summarizing published findings on sociodemographic, psychosocial, and other correlates of risk, and protective behaviors for hearing loss caused by loud music in young people aged 12 to 25 years.

Section snippets

Literature Search

In 2006, three computerized databases (PubMed, PsycINFO and Web of Science) were searched to locate articles (published before October 2006) on behavior or its correlates of young people aged 12 to 25 years related to hearing conservation or hearing loss. The following search strings were used: (noise exposure OR sound exposure OR noise induced hearing loss OR hearing loss) AND (head phones or headphones or earphones or ear phone OR aerobic OR aerobics OR discotheque OR discotheques OR leisure

Study Selection

Searches in PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science resulted in 385, 10, and 57 records, respectively; after duplicates were removed, 411 articles remained in the initial selection. The hand search provided another 34 publications. From a total 445 articles, 33 were included in this descriptive summary. None of these were of a qualitative nature (e.g., focus group studies or in-depth interviews). Reasons for exclusion and numbers of excluded articles are summarized in Figure 1.

Data Extraction

An overview of the

Discussion

This study of 33 articles is the first overview of sociodemographic and psychosocial correlates of risk and protective behaviors for hearing loss in young people aged 12 to 25 years. Most studies aimed to investigate the prevalence of hearing loss, and reported some information on potential correlates as secondary goals of their studies. Due to heterogeneity in samples and study questions and designs, and the lack of application of theoretical models, results of the included studies can be

Conclusion

In order to prevent music-induced hearing loss in youth, insight into determinants is needed. Although this overview identified several useful sociodemographic and psychosocial correlates, it showed that there is a lack of theory-based empirical research on the correlates of young people’s hearing conservation behavior during their leisure activities, especially on correlates of MP3 player use. For the development of effective interventions, specific evidence- and theory-based, and preferably

References (40)

  • P.J. Catalano et al.

    Noise-induced hearing loss and portable radios with headphones

    Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol

    (1985)
  • P.A. Hellström et al.

    Sound levels, hearing habits and hazards of using portable cassette players

    J Sound Vibr

    (1988)
  • C.A. Kasper

    The simple guide to optimum hearing health for the mp3 generation

    (2006)
  • J.H. Chung et al.

    Evaluation of noise-induced hearing loss in young people using a web-based survey technique

    Pediatrics

    (2005)
  • C. Crandell et al.

    Knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes about hearing loss and hearing protection among racial/ethnically diverse young adults

    J Natl Med Assoc

    (2004)
  • C. Eggemann et al.

    Hörschäden durch Freizeitläm nehmen zuAuch das Ohr braucht mal Pause

    MMW Fortschr Med

    (2002)
  • A.S. Niskar et al.

    Estimated prevalence of noise-induced hearing threshold shifts among children 6 to 19 years of age: the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994, United States

    Pediatrics

    (2001)
  • M.R. Serra et al.

    Recreational noise exposure and its effects on the hearing of adolescentsPart I: an interdisciplinary long-term study

    Int J Audiol

    (2005)
  • J.E. Kuras et al.

    Listening patterns of self-identified rockmusic presented via earphones

    J Auditory Res

    (1974)
  • L.W. Green et al.

    Health promotion planning: an educational and environmental approach

    (1999)
  • R.W. Rogers et al.

    Protection motivation theory

  • R.W. Rogers

    Cognitive and physiological processes in fear appeals and attitude change: a revised theory of protection motivation

  • A.S. Niskar et al.

    Prevalence of hearing loss among children 6 to 19 years of age: the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

    JAMA

    (1998)
  • M. Florentine et al.

    On the behavioral characteristics of loud-music listening

    Ear Hear

    (1998)
  • D. Fucci et al.

    Effect of preference for rock music on magnitude-estimation scaling behavior in young adults: a validation

    Perceptual Motor Skills

    (1993)
  • D. Fucci et al.

    The effect of preference for rock music on magnitude-estimation scaling behavior in young adults

    Perceptual Motor Skills

    (1993)
  • D. Fucci et al.

    The effect of preference for three different types of music on magnitude estimation-scaling behavior in young adults

    Percepual Motor Skills

    (1996)
  • M. Vittitow et al.

    Effect of simultaneous exercise and noise exposure (music) on hearing

    J Am Acad Audiol

    (1994)
  • J.R. Ferrari et al.

    Interventions to reduce high-volume portable headsets: “turn down the sound”!

    J Appl Behav Anal

    (1991)
  • D. Lewis

    A hearing conservation program for high-school-level students

    Hear J

    (1989)
    • View full text
    Copyright © 2007 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.