Track: Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)

Abstract

Musicians are often exposed to loud music during practice playing their instrument or performance on stage, so they are at risk of permanent cochlear nerve damage or hearing loss. However, the risk of hearing loss is not well understood since there is a significant inter-individual variation in susceptibility and degree of hearing loss. Hearing properly is vital for musicians for hear the right notes and words to playing in the correct pitch and key. Since it is not often possible to avoid the noise exposure, some changes of risk factors and use hearing protection devices are suggestion for preventing of hearing loss. Study aims were to determine the influence of sound exposure onset and duration to the hearing loss prevalence in musicians. This study was an observational analytic study using a cross sectional design conducted on 35 among musicians in Yogyakarta City Indonesia during October 2019 - February 2020. We collected demographic data, type of instruments, onset and duration exposure, complaints about hearing and the used of protective device. All participants underwent ear clinical examination and pure tone audiometry interpreted by an audiology consultant. The data obtained were described by frequency and percentage and compared ratio analysed using chi-square test. The prevalence of noise induced hearing loss in musicians at this study was 20%, an audiometric notch in one or both ears were found in 5.71 % and 14.29 % of the participants, respectively. The main complaint was tinnitus reported by 21 (60%) and only 2 (5.71%) of the participants wore hearing protection. Bivariate analysis using chi-square test between the sound exposure onset with hearing loss prevalence obtained p value of 0.578 (p > 0.05), and between the sound exposure duration weekly with hearing loss prevalence obtained p value of 0.02 (p < 0.05). The  sound exposure onset is not significantly influence to the hearing loss prevalence, while the weekly sound exposure duration is significantly influence to hearing loss prevalence in musicians. Since lack of knowledge  and awareness most musicians never used protective devices.