Music listening behaviour of people with hearing impairments v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Hearing aids for music: Exploring the listening behaviour of people with hearing impairments
IRAS ID
133617
Contact name
Alinka Greasley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 9 months, 31 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 listening experiences and behaviour of this subset of the population; existing studies tend to focus on ‘normally’ hearing participants. This research project, funded by the AHRC, is the first large-scale systematic investigation of the music listening behaviour of people with hearing impairments. It will 1) explore how music listening experiences are affected by deafness, hearing impairments and the use of hearing aid (HA) technology; and 2) identify areas for improving the perception of music using HA technology. These aims will be explored through a brief survey handed out to NHS patients attending the Department of Neurotology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This will be followed by an interview study; audiometric data will be collected when existing data is more than two years old. Results of these studies will inform the design of a large-scale national survey, distributed as widely in the UK as possible, which will identify national trends in the listening behaviour of people with hearing impairments. The research findings will benefit people with all levels of deafness and HA users, both in the UK and internationally, through open access content on a website and forum. The findings will also support audiologists in addressing music listening challenges presented by patients in their clinics; and 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. Improved access to music using HAs will benefit people of all ages, facilitating music education for deaf children and young people, musical listening and performance in adulthood, and continued musical engagement into old age.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
15/NS/0020
Date of REC Opinion
19 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion