Hearing for Life: hearing health awareness and hearing-protective behaviours in Australian first-year music students

Background and Purpose<br/>Hearing health for musicians is vital for lifelong participation and sustainable careers in music. Yet rates of hearing loss and the presence of tinnitus (ringing in the ears), hyperacusis (abnormal sensitivity to everyday sound levels or noises including sensitivity to high pitched sounds) and diplacusis (the pitch of a sound presented to both ears is heard differently in each of the two ears) have been shown to be high in professional musician populations (O’Brien et al., 2014; Di Stadio et al., 2018). Previous research has also shown that student musicians aged 18-25 have experienced noise-induced hearing loss at higher frequencies (Phillips et al., 2010; Pawlaczyk-Luszczynska et al., 2017) and tinnitus (Olsen et al., 2016). Risk factors include instrument type and musical styles, exposure, acoustic characteristics of venues, ensemble seating plans, and non-musical noise exposure (O’Brien et al., 2008; 2013). Barriers to using hearing protection by students were identified by Couth et al. (2021), highlighting the lack of awareness on the part of young music students about the hearing health risks they face. It is important for tertiary music students to become aware of the risks to their hearing and how they can mitigate them early in their careers, yet provision of such information is often divorced from core music subjects. <br/><br/>This research investigates hearing health and protective behaviours of entering tertiary music students at an Australian university, and how introducing hearing health information within the core subject of aural training impacts on music student awareness and use of hearing protection. The presentation reported results from a survey of first-year music students about their hearing health, use of hearing protection at the start of their tertiary studies, and results of hearing tests for 11 participants.