Personal listening habits and the potential for hearing loss of Canadian university students

Rationale: Personal and external factors, such as earphone type and music preference, can influence music volume adjustment beyond safe levels. The present study attempted to identify which factors are most influential on volume adjustment. Method: A cross-sectional survey of university students (n = 75) who use personal listening devices (PLD) was performed. Additionally, each participant's PLD music volume was measured through their earphones. Results: On average, participants listened to music at safe (<85 dB) but high levels (79.8 dB) for generally less than four hours per day. Nearly 60% of respondents used earbuds and half preferred “noisy” music genres such as hip-hop and rock/folk. The vast majority of respondents indicated listening to music while travelling by bus for the purpose of blocking out environmental noise or out of boredom. About 75% of the participants were categorized as “pro-noise”. Most students claimed to respond to changing noise environments by adjusting music volume, but few enabled PLD built-in volume controls. Impact: This study determined that earphone type, listening environment, music genre, and listening duration were influential on an participants’ adjustment of music volume. Further research is needed to assess earphone quality and to clearly elucidate more complex associations between external or personal factors and volume adjustment.