Hearing assessment of students of a music conservatoire using otoacoustic emissions

Since the introduction of the UK’s Control of Noise at Work Regulations research has been undertaken in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music investigating the hearing acuity of their classical music students. Since 2007 more than 5000 students have been assessment using audiometry based health surveillance. Due to COVID pure tone audiometry was no longer safe to undertake, July 2021, so a new approach was taken using otoacoustic emissions. Since 2021 502 musicians have had their otoacoustic emissions assessed using Hearing Coach software / firmware. The results have been used to independently test the Hearing Coach dataset in terms of hearing acuity and has produced a simple rule of thumb to engage the public in the understanding of their hearing acuity. Results show that identifying an objective criterion which illustrates, “Having young ears” is very easily and quickly understood by the students. This provides reassurance that otoacoustic emissions is an excellent supplementary tool for assessing the hearing health of students from a music conservatoire.