Parents lack education on preventing hearing loss in teens and few believe their child is at risk, according to a study by Penn State College of Medicine’s Dr. Deepa L. Sekhar. The study appears in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association's Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.
Researchers conducted an Internet-based survey in a nationally representative sample of 716 parents of 13- to 17-year-olds to determine their knowledge of adolescent hearing loss and willingness to help prevent it.
According to study results, 69 percent of parents had not spoken with their adolescent about noise exposure, mainly because of the perceived low risk, but more than 65 percent were willing to limit listening time to music and access to other excessively noisy situations to protect their adolescents’ hearing.
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This study was funded by a grant from the Children’s Miracle Network.