title: High-frequency hearing loss among mobile phone users.
abstract: The objective of this study is to assess high frequency hearing (above 8 kHz) loss among prolonged mobile phone users is a tertiary Referral Center. Prospective single blinded study. This is the first study that used high-frequency audiometry. The wide usage of mobile phone is so profound that we were unable to find enough non-users as a control group. Therefore we compared the non-dominant ear to the dominant ear using audiometric measurements. The study was a blinded study wherein the audiologist did not know which was the dominant ear. A total of 100 subjects were studied. Of the subjects studied 53% were males and 47% females. Mean age was 27. The left ear was dominant in 63%, 22% were dominant in the right ear and 15% did not have a preference. This study showed that there is significant loss in the dominant ear compared to the non-dominant ear (P < 0.05). Chronic usage mobile phone revealed high frequency hearing loss in the dominant ear (mobile phone used) compared to the non dominant ear.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Velayutham
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Gopala Krishnan
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Govindasamy
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Raman
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ; Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Malaya Medical Center, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Prepageran
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Imaging, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Ng
keywords: Dominant ear; Electromagnetic radiation; High frequency hearing loss; Mobile phones