Professional musicians run almost fourfold risk of noise induced deafness

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-04/bmj-pmr042814.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 30-Apr-2014

Contact: Stephanie Burns
BMJ-British Medical Journal
Professional musicians run almost fourfold risk of noise induced deafness

And they are 57 percent more likely to have tinnitus than general public

Professional musicians are almost four times as likely to develop noise induced hearing loss as the general public, reveals research published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

And they are 57% more likely to develop tinnitus - incessant ringing in the ears - as a result of their job, the findings show.

Noise induced hearing loss can be caused by sudden very loud noise, such as an explosion or gunfire, but it may also develop gradually as a result of repeated exposure to loud noise, suggest the study authors.

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Hearing loss becomes more common with age, but after adjusting for this and other influential factors, such as sex and population density, professional musicians were still more likely to have noise induced hearing loss than the general public.

They were almost four times as likely to have some level of deafness and 57% more likely to have tinnitus.

The authors point out that repeated long term exposure to industrial noise has been clearly linked to hearing damage, including an inability to hear the full range of sound. But published evidence suggests that long term exposure to music has the opposite effect and increases hearing sensitivity.

"Our data suggest that in professional musicians the risks of music induced hearing loss outweigh the potential benefits for hearing ability, as reported by [other researchers]," write the authors.

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Professional musicians should be given protective in-ear devices, whether they are playing in rock bands or orchestras, and whenever sound amplifiers are used, in a bid to reduce the risk, they suggest. Sound shields should also be installed between different sections of an orchestra.