Evaluation of self-service hearing screening and awareness of noise-induced hearing loss among students of Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

In the contemporary era, the scope of adult hearing screening remains comparatively restricted in comparison with that available for other age demographics. Moreover, there is an absence of a standardised programme in this field. In the present study, the objective was to evaluate the hearing health of university students using a self-service hearing screening method and to ascertain the level of awareness of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), a leading cause of hearing impairment. In the context of this study, the pure tone hearing thresholds of students at Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine were measured at frequencies of 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 Hz. The general status of the students' hearing health was then analysed. Furthermore, a 10-item awareness questionnaire was administered to the participants in order to ascertain their level of knowledge regarding NIHL. A total of 385 student volunteers (185 females and 200 males) aged between 18 and 24 years participated in the study. According to the hearing screening results, 99.2% of the participants had normal hearing (25 dB and below), while 0.5% had unilateral and 0.3% had bilateral mild hearing loss (26-40 dB). No significant difference was found between classes and genders in terms of frequency-specific hearing thresholds and pure tone averages (p>0.05). According to the results of the questionnaire, the average awareness of the students about NIHL was determined as 68.8%. No significant difference was found when NIHL awareness was evaluated in terms of classes and genders (p>0.05). As a result, the prevalence of hearing loss among the young adults included in the study was found to be low and they were partially informed about NIHL. It is believed that conducting such self-service hearing screening and awareness studies will contribute to the establishment of a standard adult screening programme and the development of hearing health awareness throughout society. In addition, as the self-service hearing screening method is simple, short term and inexpensive, it is envisaged that it will be beneficial to make it widely available to adults in order to detect hearing loss. Keywords: Adult hearing screening, Audiometric testing, Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) awareness, Pure tone average, Self-service hearing screening,