Prevalence of hearing loss in adolescents and young adults as a result of social noise exposure: meta-analysis

ABSTRACT: Leisure noise exposure in adolescents and young adults has drawn attention, due to the impact of hearing loss in this population. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of hearing loss in this group as a result of social noise exposure. Seventeen articles that met the selection criteria were analyzed and some pieces of information about them were observed, such as delineation, age, location, assessment mode, and prevalence of hearing loss. The prevalence in the self-reported studies was less than 2%, while those carrying out audiometry ranged from 11.5 to 15.8%. It is concluded that there is heterogeneity between the prevalence of self-reported hearing loss and the one measured by audiometric tests in the studied population.