Young people's exposure to loud music - A summary of the literature

Objectives: This descriptive summary of the literature provides an overview of the available studies (published before October 2006) on sociodemographic, psychosocial, and other correlates of risk and protective behaviors for hearing loss in young people aged 12 to 25 years. Methods: Publications' were identified by a structured search in PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science, and by scrutinizing the reference lists of relevant articles. The protection motivation theory was used as the theoretical framework for categorizing the psychosocial correlates. Results: Thirty-three papers were included that identified several sociodemographic and psychosocial correlates, such as age, gender, school level, ethnicity, music preference, physical activity, social influence, and free supply of hearing protection. Conclusions: For the development of effective interventions we recommend theory-based longitudinal studies among those frequently exposed to loud music to assess these correlates in greater depth.