(Email from Chris White, Action on Hearing Loss)
Hi Rachel,
Here's last year's results. I will give you 2011 when I can, it's just
we can't send them out just at the minute.
Thanks,
Chris
Don’t Lose the Music questionnaires
1072 people between the ages of 7 and 68 completed the Don’t Lose the Music questionnaires over the summer festival season. Questions asked related to music listening habits including ones asking whether or not the individuals protect their hearing or would wear earplugs when at noisy gigs and clubs and how long they spent listening to their MP3 players per day. The information was analysed as a whole and also broken down into age brackets (7-15 year olds, 16-24 year olds, 25-35 year olds and over 35’s) to see how attitudes and behaviour changed between different age groups.
Over 87% of those interviewed had noticed ringing in their ears after going to a gig or a club. Perhaps more shocking is that more than 90% of the 16-24 year olds had experienced this, which is higher than the over 35’s who had, despite the latter being at least 10 years older and with presumably more visits to clubs and gigs. More worrying was the fact that 77% of those 15 and under (including the youngest participant of 7) had felt this ringing in their ears, despite the fact that they were not even old enough to go to clubs and some gigs!
Despite the high numbers of people who had felt ringing in their ears after a night out, only 38% of people had ever consciously done anything to protect their ears at gigs (this includes anything from using earplugs to moving away from the speakers and even putting their hands over their ears). Also, 21% of the people that had taken steps to protect their hearing still would not wear free earplugs if they were given out at clubs and gigs and would rather take other measures, such as moving away from speakers or leaving the room.
When asked about earplugs it was clear that there were many misconceptions about them. The participants were asked whether they would wear earplugs if they were given out at clubs and gigs with 57% of those interviewed saying that they would, 38% would not and 5% were unsure as they did not know enough about earplugs. Out of the many reasons people gave for why they would not wear free earplugs, there were several obvious main themes. Out of 245 reasons, 92 (38%) of them related to fashion, image and the idea that it is not ‘cool’ to be seen wearing earplugs. This shows that people are more inclined to worry about their image than their hearing. The second most popular reason people would not wear earplugs if they were given out for free related to misconceptions of the effect of earplugs and the idea that wearing earplugs would ruin the music. 62 (25%) of those asked said that wearing earplugs would ‘defeat the point’, ‘muffle the sound’ or make them ‘unaware of their surroundings’. This perhaps shows that people are unaware of the different types of earplugs that are on offer and are dismissing using them based on experiences of using the lowest quality ones available.
Whether or not people would wear free earplugs seems to relate to age. 62% of the over 35’s had consciously made efforts to protect their hearing and 66% would wear earplugs if they were given out at gigs and clubs compared to the 54% of 16-24 year olds who would wear them. However, interestingly, only 53% of the 25-34 year olds would wear free earplugs, and 68% of the 7-15 year olds would, though this may change as they get older, as the youngest participants were probably there with a parent or older relative who would perhaps have influenced their answers.
When asked to rate how important their hearing is to them out of 10 (compared with other health concerns such as safe sex and wearing sunscreen), many people rated it highly.
The average rating was 7.7 out of 10, with 33% of people giving it the highest rating of 10 out of 10. However, despite the fact that hearing was regarded as important, 57% of the people who gave it the highest rating (10 out of 10) had never consciously done anything to protect their hearing, and 36% of them still would not wear earplugs if they were offered out for free at gigs or clubs. 5 people rated their hearing as 0 out of 10 in importance. All of those people were between the ages of 16 and 24; the target group for this campaign.
77% of the people questioned had an MP3 player which they listened to every day. The average time people spent listening to their MP3 players was 2 hours 25 minutes daily, though more than 20 people admitted to listening to their MP3 players for over 10 hours a day. Fifteen of those people (68%) were between the ages of 16 and 24, which was perhaps not surprising, but still worrying, as they will probably continue listening to their MP3 players this extensively, meaning that they will be exposed to this level of continual noise for many years at a young age.
Just under 50% of the people surveyed knew that there is currently no cure for noise induced hearing loss or tinnitus, which means that just over 50% of people did not realise this and were perhaps being more careless about their hearing as they thought that any hearing loss could be cured. Well over 50% of the 7-15 year olds also thought that there would be a cure for this type of hearing loss or tinnitus.
A massive 83% of the people interviewed did not know that the European Parliament will be setting a default volume for MP3 players in the future.
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