Personal Listening Device Use Habits, Listening Belief, and Perceived Change in Hearing Among Adolescents

This study aimed to identify personal listening device (PLD) usage habits, listening belief, and perceived change in hearing, and to investigate how the variables related to perceived change in hearing among adolescents. The participants were 183 middle school students and 233 high school students from Ulsan. Data were collected by self-reported questionnaires from August 1, 2019, to October 22, 2019, and analyzed with descriptive statistics, χ2 test, Mann–Whitney U test, and hierarchical multiple logistic regression. Most students started to use PLDs from elementary school, and mean preferred listening level was 70.13 dB. Mean perceived susceptibility to music-induced hearing loss (MIHL) and perceived barriers to prevent MIHL were 5.18 and 3.40, respectively. Perceived change in hearing was reported on 14.2% of middle school students and 32.2% of high school students, and as the average score of perceived barriers to prevent MIHL increases by one point, the odds of decrease in hearing increase by 2.05 times (p