High-Frequency Hearing Loss Amongst Smart Mobile Phone Users: A Case-Control Study
Author: Indira Jha1, Md Kabir Alam1, Chandan Kumar1, Niska Sinha2, Tarun Kumar1
Affiliation:
1 Department of Physiology, IGIMS, Patna, Bihar, India.
2 Department of Psychiatry, IGIMS, Patna, Bihar, India.
Conference/Journal: Ann Afr Med
Date published: 2024 Oct 1
Other:
Volume ID: 23 , Issue ID: 4 , Pages: 684-687 , Special Notes: doi: 10.4103/aam.aam_93_24. , Word Count: 201
Background:
In past 20 years, there is increase in mobile phone users from 12.4 million to about 5.6 billion i.e 70 % of the world's population.[1] Electromagnetic radiations emitted from mobile phone damages inner ear, cochlea and outer hair cells of inner ear and auditory pathway (AP).[2].
Materials and methods:
Case control study. Group 1, N=30 subjects, using mobile smart phones since past 1-5 years and exposure time more than 2 hours per day. Group II included 30 subjects, using mobile smart phones for more than 5 years and exposure time more than 2 hours per day. Headache, tinnitus, or sensations of burning around phone-using were excluded. Brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) done. Student Unpaired t test was used for analysis and chisquare test.
Results:
Mean ± SD of absolute latencies (AL) of Brainstem evoked response auditory. (BERA) waves III, V and all interpeak latencies at 80 dB and 4,6,8 KHz in group 2 were delayed and significant as compared to group 1. All parameters were highly significant at 8KHz as compared to 4KHz in group 2.
Conclusion:
Brain stem evoked response audiometry (BERA) detects hearing loss in smart mobile phone using subjects at higher frequencies i.e at 8 KHz early. Hence central neural axis involvement can be detected early by BERA.
PMID: 39279174 DOI: 10.4103/aam.aam_93_24
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