Projects & Grants

Internal Grant Competition DGC
START-UP grant





Hearing loss and use of personal audio devices among adults younger than 30 years
Project IdSGS09/LF/2023
Main solverMgr. Nikol Gottfriedová
Period1/2023 - 12/2023
ProviderSpecifický VŠ výzkum
Statefinished
AnotationAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1.5 billion people worldwide live with hearing loss and 49 million young people aged 12-35 years live with disabling hearing loss. WHO reports that 1 in 2 young people in middle- and high-income countries listen to unsafe levels of sound through personal audio devices (PADs), (i.e. a portable device with headphones to listen to recorded or generated sound or sound broadcast by media). People may expose themselves to the same level of loudness in 15 minutes of music at 100 dB that an industrial worker gets in an 8-hour day at 85 dB. In 2014, mobile phones with portable audio function were defined as a new health risk by the European Commission's Scientific Committee. Prolonged loud music listening through PADs increases the risk of hearing loss and results in deterioration of hearing thresholds. Conventional pure-tone audiometry is the test used to identify hearing threshold levels in frequency range from 125-8 000 Hz. High-frequency audiometry at frequencies from 9 000-20 000 Hz can detect hearing loss before manifesting at medium and low frequencies that significantly affect the quality of hearing. The aim of this project is to determine the hearing thresholds among young adults aged 18-30 using pure-tone audiometry test in the frequency range from 125-16 000 Hz. Then to compare the thresholds according to PADs using to find out if PADs listening could be a significant risk factor for the hearing loss development in the population under 30 years of age and recommend the preventive measures for PADs listeners.