Summary
Exposure to high- and moderate-intensity sound is inevitable for professional singers
during their working day, the majority of which is spent in rehearsal, preparing for
a performance. The impact of self-produced sound exposure on singers’ hearing within
the rehearsal setting has not been examined. Objectives: This original pilot field
study investigates the feasibility of data collection and hypothesis testing of singers’
hearing within the rehearsal environment. Methods: 18 professional choir singers are
examined for hearing threshold changes following routine rehearsal sound exposure.
Pure Tone Audiometry is measured before, immediately after, and approximately 24 hours
after rehearsal. Results: This study does not identify definitive Temporary Threshold
Shift in this population under these conditions. That said, mean temporary threshold
shift was found 3.61 dB higher than the recovery threshold shift in the right ear
at 3000 Hz (P = 0.06), and this may be important to look at for future studies. Conclusions: Methodological
challenges of this field study include dynamic experimental conditions intrinsic to
the rehearsal process, environmental and musical influence on Pure Tone Audiometry
results and estimation of sound intensity exposure.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 03, 2021
Accepted:
February 5,
2021
Footnotes
Declaration of interest: none
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
