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Pure-tone audiometry was performed on 140 classical orchestral musicians employed at the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Opera in Sweden. This report is based on the results from hearing threshold measurements, presented as median audiograms according to gender, age group and instrument group. The results did not show severe hearing losses that could be attributed to exposure to musical noise. However, the study reflects the subjects' present hearing ability status and does not give an answer to the question of future hearing dysfunction. Female musicians were shown to have significantly better hearing thresholds in the high-frequency area than did male musicians. Furthermore, the median pure-tone hearing thresholds for the male musicians displayed a notch configuration at 6 kHz in the left ear, similar that of to noise-induced hearing loss. A small, but in general not significant, difference was detected when comparing the median hearing thresholds between each instrument group. Percussion and woodwind players displayed slightly worse hearing thresholds than did other musicians. Players of large string instruments had the best hearing threshold values. When comparing age groups and gender it was noted that the median hearing thresholds were stable and within 20 dB HL up to the age group of 40-49 years for both females and males.

The aim of this study was to assess hearing and hearing disorders among rock/jazz musicians. One hundred and thirty-nine (43 women and 96 men) musicians participated. The results are based on pure-tone audiometry and questionnaire responses. According to our definition of hearing loss, tinnitus, hyperacusis, distortion and/or diplacusis as hearing disorders, we found disorders in 74%, of the rock/jazz musicians studied. Hearing loss, tinnitus and hyperacusis were most common, and the latter two were found significantly more frequently than in different reference populations. The women showed bilateral, significantly better hearing thresholds at 3-6 kHz than the men. Hyperacusis, and the combination of both hyperacusis and tinnitus, were found to be significantly more frequent among women than among men. Hearing loss and tinnitus were significantly more common among men than among women. It is important to evaluate all kinds of hearing problems (other than hearing loss) in musicians, since they represent an occupational group especially dependent on optimal, functional hearing. On the basis of our results, we suggest that hearing problems such as tinnitus, hyperacusis, distortion and/or diplacusis should, in addition to hearing loss, be defined as hearing disorders.

In modern work practice, occupational noise exposure appears to be diminishing. Conversely, leisure noise activities appear to increase exposure to both the occurrence and the level of sound. If increased exposure to noise results in deteriorating hearing, one would expect to discover this by audiometric tests in teenagers. In the present investigation, 500 randomly selected conscripts from military service were tested. The mean hearing level was mostly well within that expected by international standards. The individual analyses show that 14% had some hearing loss defined as more than 20 dBHL in either ear and in the frequency range 0.25-8 kHz. This figure is considerably lower than recent reports from Norway and Great Britain. We did not find any correlation between different health parameters and hearing loss, except that conscripts of short stature tended to have more hearing loss. Consequently, we could not confirm an increasing general prevalence of hearing loss in young male individuals.

Using pure tone audiometry in 1995, a hearing reassessment was made in 56 classical musicians who participated in Axelsson & Lindgren's study 16 years earlier, in 1979. This study focuses on hearing development in these classical orchestra musicians, active in Göteborg, Sweden. The aim of the study is to evaluate the risk of progressive hearing loss during work in a classical orchestra. Another aim is to study possible hearing differences in females and males and to compare the high frequency pure-tone average values found in the study with two normal materials. The main findings were that the male, compared to the female musicians, showed a tendency toward a more pronounced, although not significant, hearing reduction in the high frequency region and higher threshold distribution within the 90th percentile than the females. This was found most often in the left ear. The median audiogram for all females showed a notch configuration at 6 kHz, compared to the males who had a high-tone sloping configuration. When comparing high frequency pure-tone average (HFPTA) values with ISO 7029, the females are distributed around the ISO 7029 median and well within the 90th percentile. The average among the males was equal with the median. Comparison with Davis normal population "all the sample, overall occupational group" showed a more even distribution of the HFPTA values around the median for both females and males on both occasions. This follow-up study showed no extended negative progress of the pure-tone hearing threshold values in spite of an additional 16 years of musical noise exposure.

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A study on the assessment of hearing and hearing disorders in rock/jazz musicians concluded that 74% of the musicians had some kind of disorder. The main hearing disorders found were pure-tone hearing loss, tinnitus (an acoustic sensation of sounds), hyperacusis (a hypersensitivity to low or moderate sound levels), and distortion (music sounds out of tune). Affected musicians often were able to give the exact time of the first appearance of the hearing disorders, which often was associated with a period of excessive sound exposure, high workload, or some form of emotional stress. The aim of this study was to explore associations between psychosocial work conditions, mental load, and hearing disorders in rock/jazz musicians. A total of 139 (43 women and 96 men) voluntarily participating rock/jazz musicians answered a questionnaire on psychosocial work conditions and mental load. The data were correlated to hearing and sex. The median age was 35 years in the women and 37 years in the men. Results showed that rock/jazz musicians do not generally experience themselves as stressed at work. The influence of working conditions is good, and the work consists mainly of attractive tasks. In men, hyperacusis was associated with higher psychological demands, greater difficulty in relaxing after work, higher stress during individual preparation, not getting enough sleep, and higher perceived sound level. In women, tinnitus was associated with greater difficulty in relaxing after work and less energy during musical performances. No strong correlation between psychosocial parameters and hearing loss was found. Positive and negative effects of stress on hearing are discussed.