Tinnitus Among Medical Students Using Personal Sound System

Abstract

ntroductionStatistical data on prevalence of tinnitus in India and on the relationship between exposure to recreational sound/music and the presence of tinnitus are scarce. This study was conducted to assess relationship between tinnitus and the use of personal sound system(PSS) in medical students.Materials and MethodsA questionnaire based study was conducted on 100 randomly selected medical students to assess their sound habits with the use of PSS. Information on commonly used intensity, frequency, duration of use, type of earphones and severity of tinnitus was sought. Conventional frequency audiometry (0.25-8kHz) was also performed.ResultsThe prevalence of tinnitus was found to be 33%, which was on the higher side of the global prevalence data. All the medical students surveyed in this study used personal sound system. Majority of the students (45%) used PSS less than 1 hour daily. More than 60% of the students complaining of tinnitus preferred louder settings in their PSS.DiscussionThe most common personal sound system used was mobile phones. No statistically significant association was seen with relation to the type of personal sound system, the type of ear phone used, average duration of use and hearing loss. Tinnitus was found to have statistically significant association with volume in our study with majority having tinnitus listening to higher levels of sound.ConclusionUse of personal sound system is common in medical students. Though duration of use of the personal sound system was not associated with the complaint of tinnitus, exposure to louder sounds had statistically significant association with tinnitus.