The objective of the study was to compare awareness of music-induced hearing loss to the behavior trends. The article states that they believe that music-induced hearing loss is an unconsciously self-inflicted public health concern and it could evolve into an epidemic because of the appeal of loud music.

The results showed that hearing loss was considered a problem by 32% of the 2500 respondents compared with other health issues such as drug/alcohol use (62%). However, nearly half of the respondents admitted experiencing symptoms such as tinnitus or hearing loss after loud music exposure.

Seventy-five percent of respondents owned an MP3 player, with 24 percent listening to their music player for more than 15 hours a week. Nearly half of the respondents also said they use their player at 75 percent to 100 percent of its maximum volume capacity.

Most respondents could not remember learning about prevention of potential hearing loss, although the media has become the most informative source. Most respondents indicated that they would adopt protective ear behavior if made aware of hearing loss risk, especially if informed by health care professionals, revealing an educational opportunity.

This is an very telling study in that it show two things.

#1 – Respondents could not recall being informed about hearing loss risks.
#2 – Respondents would be in favor of using hearing protection if they were ever educated about the risks.

Help us spread the word about the risk of music-induced hearing loss. Listening to your portable music player is detrimental to your hearing wellness. Take a look at our blog post about putting a limit on your iPod volume.

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The most interesting feature of the application is that it continuously keeps a recorded buffer of what it hears, allowing you to quickly replay the last five to thirty seconds of a misheard conversation. So you can actually rewind whatever was just said the replay it. I can think of a lot of arguments that would have been quickly settled if I’d had this little app around.

The price is $9.99 and it currently has 16 ratings at an average rating of 3.5 stars. iTunes link.

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Surprisingly, there are even iPhone apps for this very purpose. While screenings on phones or computers may be as much for entertainment as anything else, if taken properly according to instructions given, they actually can provide some initial insight to a person about whether their hearing may warrant getting checked out by a true professional. The uHear free application assesses hearing in the areas of hearing sensitivity to determine the quietest sounds you can hear, speech in noise in terms of measuring your ability to understand speech in the presence of noise, and a questionnaire regarding your performance in common listening situations.

For example, if you and several friends or family members take a series of hearing tests on the uHear application (or a similar screening tool) on their iPhones and you score much lower, it might be time for a hearing screening to determine your overall hearing wellness. Since it is a myth that hearing loss affects only older Americans, what do you have to lose?

Also, if you have regular physical checkups with your family doctor, ask for your hearing to be checked as part of the overall wellness exam. Unless you ask about it specifically, your doctor may not check your hearing — especially if you have not reported any problems or concerns.

YouTube link

Protect your hearing through safe practices from loud noises such as wearing ear plugs and having regular hearing examinations. You may also want to consider whether the all-natural hearing wellness supplement ProHieran is right for you!

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For example, you could hold the iPhone up to your head phone to measure exactly how much sound you are pumping directly into your ears. Or you could use the app to monitor the noise while you are walking on a typical street corner.

Unfortunately the iPhone is not able to measure sound levels above 100 dB, but that really isn’t much of a limitation because anything over 85 decibels for an extended period of time can cause permanent hearing loss. So if you take a reading of your car stereo and find that you typically listen to your music at 90 dB, we’d recommend that you turn your volume down. You could be damaging your ears!

Check out this video review of one of the more popular iPhone decibel meters called, Decibel.

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