FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH HEARING THRESHOLD OF STUDENTS ATTENDING KARAOKE BAR AROUND A UNIVERSITY IN EASTERN REGION

Abstract

               This research was a cross sectional descriptive study aimed to study factors’ association, including personal factors, practice factors regarding noise exposure and noise level in karaoke rooms among 68 students using karaoke bar in a University in Eastern region. The instruments used in the study were sound level meter, audiometer and questionnaire. The study found that 30.88% of the sample group has the result of audiogram after singing karaoke be in the line affecting hearing (The hearing threshold in each frequency of either ear exceeds 25 decibels). The relationship among the studied factors including personal factors (gender, age, smoking, drinking and hobbies with noise), practice factors for noise exposure (frequency of service using, number of attending hour, frequency of entering a pub/bar, frequency of headphones use, past/present work experience related to noise), and noise exposure factors in the karaoke room found that there was no correlation with the hearing threshold. However, this study found that there were 29 students (74.4%) exposed to noise levels exceeding the labor law standard by according to the attending service 1-3 hours. 11 out of 29 students (37.9%), had the result of audiogram in the line affecting their hearing. Therefore, customers those attending service at karaoke bar should reduce the microphone volume or the music volume to prevent excessive noise exposure which may affect hearing threshold.