Music and hearing aids online survey v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Hearing Aids for Music: Exploring the music listening behaviour of people with hearing impairments
IRAS ID
236452
Contact name
ALINKA E. GREASLEY
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 16 days
Research summary
Music is an important part of people’s lives and can have powerful physical, social, and emotional effects on individuals, including those with mild, moderate, severe or even profound deafness. However, very little is known about the music behaviour of this subset of the population; existing studies tend to focus on ‘normally’ hearing participants. The purpose of the large-scale online survey is to identify trends in the listening experiences and behaviour of people with hearing impairments. As well as exploring parameters that have been used in previous studies of music listening (such as demographics, musical engagement, levels of music training, uses of music, musical preferences) the questionnaire will log data on type and severity of deafness, ages of onset of hearing impairment/deafness, specific hearing aid (HA) technologies (e.g. type of compression, volume control used, microphone settings) and music settings. This will enable the systematic mapping of patterns of use of HA technology for music listening and the quantitative investigation of correlations, associations and group differences between the measured variables and sample groups. The target sample size is 1,000 HA users to allow a deeper examination of statistically significant differences, associations and trends within the data than has previously been attempted. Findings will a) benefit people with all levels of deafness and HA users, both in the UK and internationally, through open access content on a project website, and an advice leaflet; b) support audiologists in addressing music listening challenges presented by patients in their clinics; and c) provide an empirical basis for manufacturers of HAs to align their signal processing research and development activities with real-world problems and experiences of everyday music listening.
REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/2007
Date of REC Opinion
24 Nov 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion