Caring for musicians’ ears: insights from audiologists and manufacturers reveal need for evidence-based guidelines

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated clinical care delivered to musicians in Australia by audiologists and manufacturers of musicians’ hearing protectors (MHP). Design: Audiologists with experience treating musicians were invited to complete a survey on their service delivery. A second survey was administered to manufacturers of MHPs. Study sample: Four manufacturers of MHP and 31 audiologists completed the surveys. Post hoc analyses were performed comparing the responses of audiologists with more versus less clinical experience; and those with and without musical training. Results: There was considerable variation in the audiological care provided to musicians. Only one-third of audiologists performed pure-tone audiometry prior to MHP fitting, and there was little consistency across the sample in relation to impression taking, preferred attenuation or selection of canal length. There was also significant variation in the manufacturers’ approach to MHP, each of whom provided different recommendations regarding preferred impression techniques and material viscosity. Conclusions: The results of this study reveal lack of consistency across the hearing healthcare sector with respect to care of musicians’ hearing, with potential to impact upon the satisfaction with, and usage of, MHP. There is need for evidence-based, best practice guidelines and training to support clinical audiologists in providing optimal care.

Key Words:

• Hearing conservation/hearing loss prevention
• noise
• tinnitus
• demographics

Acknowledgements

The results of this study, Caring for musicians’ ears: Insights from audiologists and manufacturers reveal need for evidence-based guidelines, were presented at the National Hearing Conservation Association’s Annual Research Conference in Texas, USA, February 25, 2017. The authors thank the association for their support in attending the conference. The authors acknowledge the financial support of The HEARing CRC, established and supported under the Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centres Program and the Australian Government Department of Health. The authors would like to also thank Dr Ian O’Brien, Mr Dominic Power and Dr Caitlin Barr for their early contributions to the study.

Declaration of interest

The first author is the founder of not-for-profit, Musicians 4 Hearing. The remaining authors have no interests to declare. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Funds for this project were provided by the Australian Government Department of Industry and Science, and the Department of Health.

Supplementary materials available online

Notes

 1. A request was made by the author to clarify the response and the answer was repeated.