Adolescents′ reported hearing symptoms and attitudes toward loud music

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to compare the adolescents' attitudes toward loud music in relation to a set of self-perceived auditory symptoms and psychological variables such as norms, preparedness to take risks and risk-judgment in noisy situations. A questionnaire on hearing and preventive behavior was distributed to 281 upper secondary school students aged 15-19 years. The questionnaire included youth attitude to noise scale, questions about perceived hearing symptoms such as tinnitus and sound sensitivity and finally statements on perceived behavioral norms regarding hearing protection use, risk-taking and risk-judgment in noisy settings. Self-perceived auditory symptoms such as sound sensitivity and permanent tinnitus had a significant relationship with less tolerant attitudes toward loud music. Permanent tinnitus and sound sensitivity together accounted for 15.9% of the variation in attitudes toward loud music. Together with the psychological variables norms, preparedness to take risks and risk-judgment 48.0% of the variation in attitudes could be explained. Although perceived hearing symptoms (sound sensitivity and permanent tinnitus) was associated with less tolerant attitudes toward loud music, psychological variables such as norms, preparedness to take risks and risk-judgment were found to be more strongly associated with attitudes toward loud music and should therefore be considered more in future preventive work. Health promotive strategies should focus on changing not merely individual attitudes, but also societal norms and regulations in order to decrease noise induced auditory symptoms among adolescents.

Prevalence of tinnitus and hyperacusis in children and adolescents: a systematic review

“…Widen and Erlandsson 32 presented one study of tinnitus prevalence and one study of hyperacusis. Landalv et al 33 presented one study of tinnitus prevalence and one study of hyperacusis. Piotrowska et al 34 presented one study of children aged 7 years and one study of children aged 12 years.…”

“…Tinnitus was studied in 22 of the studies, 2 studied both tinnitus and hyperacusis, 32 33 whereas 1 study dealt with hyperacusis alone. 52 …”

“…Furthermore, subjective information regarding the hearing status were collected from self-reported questionnaires, 32 33 and school records. 37 Two studies did not establish hearing status, 35 48 and finally four studies only established hearing status on children they had included as having tinnitus.…”

Why Do People Like Loud Sound? A Qualitative Study

“…Questionnaire-based findings suggest that young people’s attitudes towards loud music are mixed and depend on what they perceive to be normal as well as their own intrapersonal factors such as personality and symptoms of noise exposure such as tinnitus and fear of hearing loss [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. On the other hand, one conclusion of this type of research is the need to look beyond the individual to societal level influences.…”

“…The Social Ecological Model provides a useful way of considering the factors that influence health related behaviours [ 23 ]. The advantage of applying the Social Ecological Model to health-risk behaviours is that, while it accounts for individual attitudes and beliefs, it also takes into consideration the impacts of higher-level aspects of the social environment, an approach which has been called for by previous research in the area [ 8 ]. According to the model, a person’s decisions about health are based on levels of influence: the intrapersonal level refers to the person’s own thoughts and attitudes; the interpersonal level is the direct influence of other people with whom one associates; the community level refers to the cultural influences on health behaviours; and the policy level refers to the influence of laws and other aspects of government policy.…”