Music Listening Habits and Auditory Functions in Medical College Students.

Introduction: Early detection of hearing impairment in young adults and raising social awareness of preventive measures are essential to mitigate the negative impact on individuals' quality of life and reduce the societal costs associated with hearing impairment. This study investigated the music listening habits of medical college students using audiological function tests to assess their impact on young adults' hearing functions.

Methods: We recruited 77 healthy volunteers who underwent a comprehensive assessment, including a questionnaire on music listening habits, pure-tone audiometry (PTA), tympanometry, extended high-frequency (EHF) audiometry, and loudness discomfort level (LDL) tests. Furthermore, we measured preferred music listening levels (PMLs). The association between music listening habits and PMLs and the results of various auditory function tests were examined.

Results: Among the 77 participants, 60 were men, and 17 were women, with a median age of 23 years. All participants exhibited a mean hearing threshold of less than 25 dB HL on PTA. Sixty-six (85.7%) participants used earphones/headphones daily, with a median usage duration of 2.0 hours. The correlations between the duration of earphones/headphones usage, EHF thresholds, and LDLs were not significantly different. The correlation between the duration of earphones/headphones usage and PMLs was weakly positive (r = 0.2772). A stronger positive correlation (r = 0.4625) was observed when focusing on 23 participants with high LDL values.

Conclusions: The positive correlation between the duration of earphones/headphones usage and PMLs suggested that inappropriate music listening habits might synergistically act as risk factors for hearing impairment in young adults.