Description

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is the second most prevalent type of hearing behind presbycusis, age-related decline in hearing. University student musicians are more at risk for NIHL because they rehearse and perform daily in loud environments. These musicians spend a significant amount of time in ensemble practices, music halls, and various performances because of various academic commitments. It is likely that student musicians have increased exposure to noise because of academic involvement in addition to any additional recreational noise exposure (i.e., personal music system use with earphones, music festivals). Not surprisingly, researchers have reported that student musicians are twice as likely to have hearing loss compared to non-musician students. The purpose of this was to evaluate hearing sensitivity in student musicians and non-musicians. Currently enrolled SDSU students were recruited for this study which is part of a larger ongoing study of auditory function in student musicians. Once informed consent was obtained, otoscopy, tympanometry, a measure of middle ear function, and pure-tone thresholds were obtained. The frequencies included 0.25 through 8 kHz and from these frequencies, three pure-tone averages (PTAs) were calculated. A low-frequency PTA (LFPTA) of 0.25, 0.5, 1, and 2 kHz, a middle-frequency PTA (MFPTA) of 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz, and a high-frequency PTA (HFPTA) of 3, 4, 6, and 8 kHz were determined. There were 15 non-musicians (12 women, 3 men) and 21 musicians (11 women, 10 men) who participated. There were no statistically significant differences for MFPTA and HFPTA between the groups after adjusting for age and sex. Musicians did, however, have slightly higher LFPTA in both ears compared to non-musicians but after adjusting for age and sex, these differences were not statistically significant. These findings are somewhat surprising given the expectation that musicians would have poorer hearing sensitivity. It is interesting that musicians had poorer LFPTAs when the current literature suggests musicians have poorer HFPTAs. More research is needed to further explore this finding.