Association between playing musical instruments and hearing loss

Sound pollution has unwarranted effects on hearing loss. Despite numerous prior studies on sound pollution and its effects in industrial environments, scanty studies are available among musicians. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the association between musical instruments noise and hearing loss.

For this prospective study, 50 professional players of string, windy, and percussion instruments as well as 30 matched controls were selected. All subjects were programmed for pure tone audiometery (PTA) and classic tempanometery.

The study population included 19 females and 31 males aged 20 to 55 years and history of playing musical instruments of 3-44 years. Hearing threshold of 88% players was within the normal range, however, 6% revealed to have slight and the remaining 6% had mild hearing loss. In frequency of 8000Hz, 30% of players had hearing loss of 25.3db in their left and 24% had hearing loss of 28db in their right ear. Meanwhile, in frequency of 4000Hz, 16% of players had hearing loss of 25.5db in their left and 10% had hearing loss of 27db in their right ear. Those who had a history of at least 15 years of playing musical instruments were shown to have a sensorineural hearing loss in all frequencies.

Since hearing loss is a major health concern among musicians, periodic audiometric examinations and use of protective means are strictly recommended for professional musicians.