| Background: Various scientific studies clarify that regular exposure to loud noise can lead to deviations in hearing. To professional musicians in the Netherlands this is a severe problem as impaired hearing could eventually lead to an incapability to work in their field. In order to solve this problem, it is of major importance to reduce the risk on developing hearing damage for musicians. However, before we can diminish this risk, we need to gain insight into the kind of hearing problems that musicians have to deal with. Therefore, the first step in this research is to make an inventory of these hearing problems. Aim: In this project, we aim to make an inventory of the different kind of hearing damage that professional musicians in classical orchestras can develop. We will use a broad variety of audiological tests: apart from the traditional tone audiogram that is used to investigate threshold shifts, we will also use other tests (e.g., a test to match tinnitus, a speech in noise test, etc.) in order to investigate other effects on hearing. Method: Professional musicians of three major professional Dutch orchestras will participate in this study. The musicians will have to complete an elaborate questionnaire involving their subjective experience of sound, noise and auditory communication. Furthermore they will have to undergo a variety of audiological tests: the tone audiogram, speech perception in noise, tinnitus, diplacusis (which is a different perception of sound in the two ears), measurement of oto-acoustic emissions (i.e., OAE), a test concerning the width of the auditory filter and loudness scaling according to the ACOLOS-procedure. To complete the study we will perform sound level measurements at concerts and rehearsals. Preliminary results: The study has started in December 2004. More than 100 musicians have been tested by now. A quick review of the results shows that most musicians experience that their hearing has become worse in the past 5 or 10 years. Many musicians suffer from diplacusis without knowing it, many have a hearing dip at 4-6 kHz and some suffer from tinnitus. Proceeding research: We expect to analyse the data of 200 musicians in 2005. In order to gain insight into the development of the musicians hearing over time, we would like to repeat the measurements in the next year. |
