Auditory Symptoms Among Musicians: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

To assess the prevalence of auditory symptoms among recreational and professional musicians.

CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PubMed, and SCOPUS were searched for English-language studies published from inception through November 19, 2024.

We included cohort and cross-sectional studies reporting auditory symptom prevalence among recreational or professional musicians at least 18 years old. Studies involving children or noise exposure data only were excluded. Data were extracted independently by two authors, with disagreements resolved by discussion. Risk of bias was assessed using the Risk Of Bias In Nonrandomized Studies - of Exposure for prospective cohort studies, the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist for retrospective cohort and cross-sectional studies, and the Risk of Bias 2 tool for randomized controlled trials. Primary outcome measures included continuous measures (mean) and proportions (%) with 95% confidence intervals.

Sixty-seven studies (n = 28,311) on auditory symptoms among musicians were included. The mean age was 34.7 years for the musicians and 30.2 years for the control group. Musicians experienced a significantly higher prevalence of tinnitus (42.6% vs 13.2%), hearing loss (25.7% vs 11.6%), and hyperacusis (37.3% vs 15.3%) compared to the control population. However, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of hearing loss, hyperacusis, and tinnitus between classical and pop/rock musicians.

At least one in three musicians reports tinnitus or hyperacusis, while approximately one in four has hearing loss. This evidence suggests otolaryngologists treating musicians should consider routine auditory assessments and preventive counseling.