Quantitative evaluation of risk of cochlear disorder caused by unconscious excessive stimulation by portable music player

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K00737
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Home economics/Human life
• Research Institution: Juntendo University
• Principal Investigator: ITO ASAMI 順天堂大学, 医学部, 助手 (60384111)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 小池 卓二 電気通信大学, 大学院情報理工学研究科, 教授 (10282097) ; 橋本 卓弥 東京理科大学, 工学部第一部機械工学科, 助教 (60548163) ; 笠井 美里 順天堂大学, 医学部, 非常勤助教 (70549279)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 携帯型音楽プレーヤー / 騒音 / 過大音刺激 / 内耳障害

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Noisy environments were artificially constructed by applying noise from the speaker installed in the soundproof room, and the sound pressure in the external auditory meatus of subjects when they were listening to music was measured in the soundproof room. Then, we tried to quantify the volume increase unconsciously. As a result of measuring for 23 males and females in their 20s to 30s age, increases in the sound pressure were observed in all three types of earphones and headphones. Especially for the closed-type headphones and the ear-hanging type earphones, there were several subjects who showed a sound pressure rise of about 20 dB, and some of them were listening to the music at more than 90 dB. This results suggest that if portable-music-player users listen to music everyday under noisy environment there is a risk of becoming noise-induced deafness depending on the type of earphone.

Free Research Field

耳鼻咽喉科学