Health Effects Associated with the Usage of Personal Audio Devices and Their Perceived Health Impact in Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction

Exposure to recreational sound is an emerging public health problem. Especially in young adults the threat arises

from extended and extreme exposure to loud music and other forms of recreational sound including music they

listen to through personal audio devices (PAD). The study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of health

effects, to find out the perceived health effects and to determine the factors associated with the usage of PAD.

Materials and Methods

We conducted a cross sectional study in 200 adults using google forms, snowball sampling method was used. We

gathered information regarding socio-demographic profile, volume levels and perceived health effect. Data was

extracted to MS Excel and SPSS 26 was used for analysis. Descriptive, Chi-square test and Krushkal Wallis test was

used. The significance level was considered at p?0.05.

Results

Out of the 200 adult participants, males constituted 58.5%, graduated graduates around 78.5%, employed 49%

and resided in urban areas 79%. Prevalence of health effects was 148(74%). There was significant association

between volume levels, hours of usage and health effects on usage of PAD in subjects p?0.05. It was also found

that there was significant difference between marital status H=10.373, p?0.05 employment H=8.76, p?0.05 and

tinnitus H=7.626, p?0.05 across different median levels.

Conclusions

Prevalence on health effect on usage of PAD was high. Hence there is a need to increase awareness about the

harmful usage of PAD among all the age groups.