Awareness About Noise Induced Hearing Loss and the Use of Unsafe Listening Practices Among Medical Students

To assess the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice on Noise Induced Hearing Loss(NIHL) caused by using Personal Listening Devices (PLD). To assess the usage pattern of PLD among undergraduate medical students studying at a tertiary health center in South India. A descriptive study was conducted by the Department of ENT over a three-month duration on undergraduate medical students who volunteered to fill in an electronic questionnaire form that they received via WhatsApp. A convenient sampling technique was used. NIHL questionnaire consisted of three sets of electronic questionnaires: Q1, Q2, and Q3. In Q1 total score of more than 75% was taken as good knowledge, 50-75% as fair knowledge, and less than 50% as poor knowledge. Q2 score of more than 50% was taken as a good attitude and less than 50% as a need to improve upon attitude. A total of 224(94.5%) participants had consented, out of the 224 students, 132(58.9%) were males and 92(41.1%) were females. 195(87.1%) of the 224 participants are regular users of PLD and the most common PLD used was earbuds (76.8%). The mean total knowledge on NIHL is less than 75%. Medical students have fair knowledge (54.5%). The weaker areas of knowledge were about the nature of the disease believing that NIHL is a reversible condition. Their overall attitude score is good (61.8%). Students more than 18 years of age had a positive attitude score (3.42 +/- 0.856) as compared with students less than 18 years of age (2.69 +/- 0.800). Most participants preferred a volume level of 6.26 +/- 1.517 on a scale of 1 to 10 for PLD, indicating that students prefer to set the volume at higher level. The participants showed fair knowledge and a good attitude concerning NIHL. The present study highlights a concerning lack of practice about NIHL and the prevalence of unsafe PLD among medical students. This underscores the importance of educational interventions to increase awareness among this population.