Changing beliefs about leisure noise: using health promotion models to investigate young people’s engagement with and attitudes toward hearing health.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate factors influencing young people’s motivation to reduce their leisure noise exposure, and protect their hearing health Design: Questionnaires were conducted online to investigate young people’s hearing health attitudes and behaviour. Items were developed using an integrated health promotion approach. The Stage of Change model was used to group participants in relation to their engagement with noise reduction behaviour. The Health Belief Model was used to compare each group’s perceptions of susceptibility and severity of hearing loss, as well as the benefits and barriers to noise reduction.