The effect of hearing preservation education on listening behavior among students using personal music players

The level of knowledge about noise induced hearing loss should be evaluated among high school students in Tehran. Then, the effect of hearing protection education on behavioral changes regarding listening to recreational noise will be examined.

This pre- post study will be conducted on 300 high school students considering inclusion criteria. Schools will be chosen randomly from different regions of city. One class in each grade will be chosen randomly.

Schools will be selected randomly from different regions of Tehran. In the first stage, one questionnaire will be developed to assess the hearing habits, the level of knowledge about the consequences of hearing loss, and the leading role of hearing protection in preventing of hearing loss. In this regard, one compact disc will be provided for educational purposes, which will include information about the source of noise and its effect on auditory system, the epidemiology of noise induced hearing loss and its mechanism, its symptoms and some recommendations for the prevention of NIHL. In addition, in order to confirm the suitability of the developed questionnaire and the educational materials with the age of the students, project executives will interview school officials. Simultaneously, different types of auditory problems such as mild, moderate, severe, high frequency and low frequency hearing loss, tinnitus and autophonia will be simulated as an audio file through Cool Edit software. In the second stage, the students' preferential listening levels will be evaluated. For this purpose, the level of loudness will be estimated by adjustment method, in which students will be asked to listen to five different types of one minute music and adjust their desired volume. These music will be presented by a portable personal music player with insert receiver. Then, the intensity of music will be measured by 2cc coupler. In following, the developed questionnaire will be completed before and after education and its information will be collected. The ANOVA analysis will be used to compare the results of questionnaire and preferential loudness before and after education.

Since normal hearing is one of the inclusion criteria, Otoscopy and screening audiometry will be done for all students. Only students whose parents had already signed the consent letter to participate are included in the study. It should be noted that if the student or his/her parents are dissatisfied with continuation of the work, this person will rule out.

In this study, a series of 30-minute group sessions have been considered in which students are taught through oral presentation with power points and simulated audio files. Behavioral evaluation of preferential loudness will be evaluated in three stage: before education, immediately after education and one month later.

The intensity of headphone output, the level of knowledge about consequences of hearing loss and tinnitus, the level of knowledge about hearing protection in noisy environments, and the level of inclination to prevent auditory sense from noisy environments are considered as research variables. In this regard, 2 cc coupler embedded in SLM will be used to measure the mean intensity of headphone output. Furthermore, the five-point Likert scale questionnaire, from lack of awareness to much awareness, will be applied to assess the level of knowledge about consequences of hearing loss and tinnitus and the level of knowledge about hearing protection in noisy environments. The level of interest in preventing ears in noisy environments will be evaluated by Likert's five-point scale, from disinclination to much inclination. Behavioral evaluation of preferential loudness will be evaluated in three stage: before education, immediately after education and one month later.

Iran University of Medical Sciences

Schools will be chosen by simple randomization. The way of randomization in choosing a class at each grade is by drawing a number.