Here is a link to the study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA): http://tiny.cc/qdeijw. The study reported a shocking difference in the hearing abilities of teenagers within a decade.
My search engine exploration was prompted by my observation in MUNI where I noticed that every single teenager I saw had headphones in their ear. Not so shocking, in a world where everyone utilizes multiple "portable listening devices" or PLDs as audiologists refer to them. However, not all of these teens had the volume on their PLDs loud enough for me to hear what genre of music they were listening to, with one distinct exception. Every African American teen had their volume turned up loud enough for me to able to identify the artist and in some cases, the lyrics of the song.
Preliminary research did not surface any race-specific studies on the issue but I did see sporadic calls for educational campaigns, but that is unsurprising because this is a relatively new finding. I hope that examining casual social trends is an important component in planning these studies even if it entails hanging out in buses to observe the habits that one is looking to change.
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