Attitude of university students towards the leisure noise induced tinnitus and hearing loss

Abstract

Background

Structures that process sound and empower the brain to understand are called ears. This is the procedure in which analysis of sound signal is done through intensity and frequency.

Objective

To see the attitude of university students towards leisure noise-induced tinnitus and hearing loss.

Material & Methods

A cross-sectional study design was used having male and female university students exposed to leisure noise. "Youth Attitude Toward Noise Scale" (YANS) was used to see the knowledge of students about leisure noise-induced tinnitus and hearing loss. In this tool, there are 26 items comprising of 5 subscales. 15 items consist of perception of hearing loss, 7 items about using hearing protection and 4 about tinnitus. Data was collected from Bahaudin Zikria University, Lahore University of Management Sciences, University of Lahore and Riphah international university and evaluated on SPSS 19.

Results

Results of this study showed that 97.7% of students have middle attitude about knowledge of hearing loss and 48.6% said that tinnitus persists for less than 30 minutes after loud music exposure. 18.2% students agreed that they experience tinnitus after leisure activities. 38.7% students said that they don’t use hearing protection because it puts too much pressure on ears.

Conclusion

The conclusion of this study showed that most of the youth were showing awareness about noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus but they don’t use hearing protection because of lack of knowledge of when to use hearing protection.

Key Words: Attitude, Hearing Loss, Tinnitus