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Young females show increased noise-induced threshold shifts

Henderson E. Pediatrics. 2011;doi:10.1542/peds.2010-0926.

Issue: February 2011

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Female youths demonstrated an increase in noise-induced hearing-threshold shifts, likely the result of increased exposure to recreational noise via portable music devices, according to researchers from Harvard Medical School.

“With the growing popularity of portable music devices, there has been increasing concern in the popular press and scientific community regarding noise-induced threshold shifts among children,” the researchers wrote.

The researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (1988-1994) and NHANES 2005-2006. Data were collected through interviews and physical examination. NHANES III included 3,441 participants aged 12 to 19 years, and NAHANES 2005-2006 included 2,288 participants aged 12 to 19 years. Audiometry and tympanometry measures were taken during the examinations. The final sample included 4,305 participants.

Low-frequency hearing loss was defined as a low pure-tone average of a more than 15-dB hearing loss, and high-frequency hearing loss was defined as a high pure-tone average of a more than 15-dB hearing loss in one or both ears. Noise-induced threshold shifts were defined as audiometric patterns of decreased 3-kHz to 6-kHz thresholds but preserved 0.5-kHz to 1-kHz and 8-kHz thresholds.

There were no significant increases in noise-induced threshold shifts, high-frequency hearing loss or low-frequency hearing loss between the NHANES III and the NHANES 2005-2006 data. However, female youths demonstrated an increase in noise-induced threshold shifts: 11.6% in NHANES III vs. 16.7% in NHANES 2005-2006.

The prevalence of exposure to loud noise or listening to music through headphones in the past 24 hours increased from 19.8% in the NHANES III study to 34.8% in the NHANES 2005-2006 study. In the NHANES 2005-2006 study, female youths and male youths had a similar exposure to recreational noise and a similar lower prevalence of hearing protection use.

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