Adherence to Protective Measures against Hearing‑Related Hazards of Mobile Phone Users among University Students

Abstract

Background: Mobile phone is an integral part of the society used by almost all. Youth in Nigerians are recognized as the most active users of mobile phones. There are about 1.1 billion youth people globally at risk of noise‑induced hearing loss from unsafe listening. The awareness and adherence to hearing conservation measures against the hearing‑related hazards of mobile phones have not been evaluated in our environment. Aims: To determine the knowledge and adherence to protective measures against the hearing‑related hazards of mobile phones among university students.

Materials and Methods: The study was a cross‑sectional descriptive type, conducted among university students. Ethical clearance was obtained from the institutional review committee, a multistage random sampling technique was used to recruit the participants, and a specially designed and validated questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data were analyzed using Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) version 20.0.

Results: The age of the respondents ranged from 16 to 40 years with a mean age of 23.6 ± 5.3 years. Very few of the participants (19.1%) adhere to protective measures to mitigate hearing‑related hazards of mobile phones, although about half (52.1%) had good knowledge of hearing  conservation measures. There was a statistically significant association between knowledge of hearing‑related hazard of mobile phone (P = 0.038) and knowledge of protective measures (P = 0.000) with the adherence to protective measures, respectively.

Conclusions: The knowledge and  adherence to protective measures against the hearing‑related hazards of mobile phones were poor among the respondents.

Keywords: Hearing loss, mobile phone, protective measures, university students