Document Type

Article

Major

Mathematics, Chemistry

Mentor

Prof. Erika Skoe, Dept. of Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences

Disciplines

Speech and Hearing Science

Abstract

College musicians face elevated risk for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) due to extensive rehearsal, headphone use, and performance activity, yet most objective sound-exposure studies rely on personal dosimeters that capture only brief windows (1–3 weeks) during the academic year, and overlook headphone-specific exposure. This study leveraged historical Apple Watch and AirPods sound data from participants in the ongoing AMI study (Skoe lab, University of Connecticut) to compare environmental and headphone noise exposure between academic-year and academic-break periods in college-age lifelong, former, and non-musicians. Sound levels (dBA) were calculated using duration-weighted, log-power averaging to account for the logarithmic nature of decibels. Environmental exposure was analyzed for 15 participants with sufficient break- and year-period data, while headphone exposure was analyzed for a larger subset of 38 participants. Contrary to our initial hypothesis that musicians would show a "recovery" period with lower exposure during breaks, results showed the opposite trend: lifelong musicians exhibited higher average dB levels during academic breaks than during the academic year, with an asymmetric pattern in headphone data where the subset of lifelong musicians who got louder over break increased roughly 2.5 times more than those who got quieter. Band instrumentalists and current ensemble members showed the largest break-related increases. Former musicians consistently showed the lowest and most stable exposure levels across periods. These findings suggest lifelong musicians may not experience acoustic "recovery" during breaks, potentially due to noisy non-musical social activities. Results suggest further studies regarding headphone noise exposure data in college musicians.

Comments

The author thanks the Holster Scholars Program and the UConn Honors Program for support.

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