A survey exploring awareness and experience of tinnitus in young adults

South African Journal of Communication Disorders

 
 
Field Value
 
Title A survey exploring awareness and experience of tinnitus in young adults
 
Creator Bagwandin, Vedika Joseph, Lavanithum
 
Subject Audiology tinnitus; young adults; awareness; experience
Description Background: Hearing loss among young adults is on the increase largely because of greater exposure to recreational noise. One of the effects of a sensorineural hearing loss is tinnitus. Despite efforts to raise awareness of hearing loss and tinnitus, young adults continue to expose themselves to the potential risks. The reasons for this are unclear; neither is the extent to which tinnitus is experienced in this population.Objectives: The study aimed to describe the awareness and experience of tinnitus among young adults, with regard to its existence, causes, effects and management.Methods: A descriptive study design was employed using an electronic survey that targeted students within a selected school at a university in KwaZulu-Natal. There were 75 participants between 18 years and 30 years. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. To raise awareness about tinnitus, on completion of the questionnaire, all participants were given access to an information document about tinnitus, its causes and management.Results: The majority of participants (69.86%) were not aware of the existence of tinnitus. Thus, most of the participants did not know about the causes or effects of tinnitus. Tinnitus was experienced by 13.51% of participants themselves and 12.16% knew someone who suffered from it.Conclusions: The general lack of awareness of what tinnitus was, its causes and effects, has implications for audiologists who are involved in hearing health care across the age span. Hearing health promotion programmes targeted at young adults should include information on hearing loss as well as tinnitus and its management.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2017-11-17
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Quantitative descriptive survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajcd.v64i1.545
 
Source South African Journal of Communication Disorders; Vol 64, No 1 (2017); 8 pages 2225-4765 0379-8046
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/545/760 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/545/759 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/545/761 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/545/758 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/545/757
 
Coverage — — 18-30 yrs; Males & Females
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 Vedika Bagwandin, Lavanithum Joseph https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT