Music and Quality of Life

For most of us, listening to music is part of our everyday life. We do it for enjoyment, inspiration, learning, or whatever other reasons there are for listening to music. Music is an important part of life because it contributes to quality of life. We see this in how it is used for therapy, as a teaching aid, as a form of expression, and as a tool for communication. Personally, I think life without music would be pretty depressing.

I came across a study done in Spain (Lassaletta et al., 2007) that looked at the influence of music perception and enjoyment of cochlear implant (CI) users on quality of life (QOL). The participants of the study were individuals who had lost their hearing post-lingually (after the acquisition of language) and received cochlear implantation. They answered two questionnaires, one to assess their “musical background, listening habits, and quality of musical sound through the CI” (Lassaletta et al., 2007, p.683), another to measure the influence of the cochlear implant on QOL. The results showed that there was a significant decrease in the number of hours per week CI users listened to music after implantation as compared to before deafness. Those who listened to music more than 2 hours a week reported enjoying music after the implantation. Those who gave more positive (higher) ratings for the quality of music through the implant reported enjoying music more than those who gave lower ratings. Those who gave higher ratings also had higher QOL ratings. Moreover, most patients had a limited musical background and this had no significant relationship with the other variables.

The findings of the study show that CI users who enjoyed music listened to music more often, but it was not clear whether this was because listening to music longer makes it more pleasant or because those who enjoy music listen to music more often than those who do not enjoy music. The decresase in CI users’ listening habits were attributed to “difficulties in rhythmic identification and melody recognition, and decreased accuracy for detection of pitch changes” (Lassaletta et al., 2007, p.685). Though CIs are function to “recover or enhance speech discrimination, their signal lacks the temporal fine structure information necessary for accurate perception of music” (Lassaletta et al., 2007, p.685). Lastly, though the study is limited, considering the complexity of music and of QOL, the findings show that music perception and enjoyment have a significant influence on QOL and should be considered in the design of CIs.

When I encounter or hear about people who have lost their hearing or who were born deaf, I realize how much I take music, and even more my ability to hear, for granted. Music is very important to me and I am thankful I am free to enjoy it everyday. If I lost my hearing, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the Taylor Swift’s concert tonight which I am so excited for! And with that, I’d like to share one of my favorite music videos of hers which I hope you will enjoy as well.:)