Musician's Journal Club

 Welcome to another week of Musician's Journal Club, a social media community exploring research articles that impact musician's musculoskeletal health. Our article this week was a 2019 article from the journal Work entitled Barriers and facilitators for implementing an exercise-based injury prevention program for string players. Previous articles have focused on the high prevalence of playing-related injuries, so I wanted to take this week to explore some potential prevention options. I especially appreciate this exercise-based intervention because it requires minimal equipment so is more accessible for individual musicians to try on their own. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Musician’s Journal Club (@musiciansjournalclub) We've looked at several articles detailing the high prevalence of overuse injuries and playing-related pain in musicians, and there is research showing that exercise may be effective in preventing these overuse injuries...

 Welcome back to Musician's Journal Club, where each week we explore a piece of scientific literature relating to musician health. This week's article was a very recent article from February 2021 in the journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders entitled Patterns of pain location in music students: a cluster analysis . Many studies have investigated prevalence of playing-related pain in musicians, but this study attempts to identify what injury patterns exist in music students to identify the most common pain locations and combinations of symptoms. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Musician’s Journal Club (@musiciansjournalclub) Playing-related pain has been shown to be highly prevalent in both student and professional musicians, with the lifetime prevalence of musculoskeletal pain being estimated between 41% and 93% in professional musicians. In music students, the point prevalence is estimated to be 63% and the 1-year prevalence is estimated bet...

 This week's article for Musician's Journal Club was a 2010 Journal from the International Journal of Audiology entitled " Prevalence of noise-induced hearing loss in student musicians ". Musicians are often in high noise-exposure environments in rehearsals, practice rooms, and concert halls, and this study specifically examined the hearing health of music students and analyzed prevalence and correlated factors such as practice time and instrument. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Musician’s Journal Club (@musiciansjournalclub) Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is defined by a drop, or notch, in hearing sensitivity at an intensity between 3000 and 6000 Hz, meaning that there is a pitch or set of pitches in this range that are not as audible to the individual. For reference, 3000 to 6000 Hz is roughly F#7 to F#8. NIHL is caused, among other factors, by high-intensity sound exposure, defined by OSHA as 8 hours at 85 dBA with a decrease ...