Prevalencia de hipoacusias en estudiantes de artes musicales de la Universidad de Cuenca, periodo septiembre 2020 – febrero 2021

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Hearing is the ability to perceive sounds that are transformed and captured by acoustic, mechanical and electrical waves that pass through the ear canal, this function can be altered by factors, such as: listening to music with loud audio, or staying in noisy environments, which can cause functional hearing damage. GENERAL OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of hearing loss in musical arts students at the University of Cuenca, period September 2020 - February 2021. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective descriptive study of a cross-sectional cohort was carried out, from the Proaudio iDempiere database; previously applied to the students mentioned above. A systematic review of the following data was carried out: sex, age, hearing diagnosis, semester, number of hours per week and years of exposure to noise, recorded on data collection forms. RESULTS: The mean age of the students was 20.85 years; 92.8% presented normal hearing, 7.2% manifested hearing loss, of which 3.6% have conductive hearing loss, and 4.08% sensorineural hearing loss. The sector with the highest prevalence of bilateral mild sensorineural hearing loss is between 21 to 23 years old (5.6%), enrolled between the fourth and eighth semester. 6.8% of users exposed to noise for more than four years expressed mild bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. CONCLUSIONS: It was determined that most of the students have normal hearing, however, a group has hearing loss. For this reason, it would be important to work on a hearing care guide for students and professionals in this area.