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. 2010 Aug;7(8):3071-9.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph7083071. Epub 2010 Aug 4.

The more the worse: the grade of noise-induced hearing loss associates with the severity of tinnitus

Birgit Mazurek  1 , Heidi Olze, Heidemarie Haupt, Agnieszka J Szczepek
Affiliations

The more the worse: the grade of noise-induced hearing loss associates with the severity of tinnitus

Birgit Mazurek et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2010 Aug.

Abstract

Tinnitus disturbs lives and negatively affects the quality of life of about 2% of the adult world population. Research has shown that the main cause of tinnitus is hearing loss. To analyze a possible association of the degree of hearing loss with the severity of tinnitus, we have performed a retrospective study using admission data on 531 patients suffering from chronic tinnitus. We have found that 83% of our tinnitus patients had a high frequency hearing loss corresponding to a noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). There was a significant correlation between the mean hearing loss and the tinnitus loudness (p < 0.0001). Interestingly, patients suffering from decompensated chronic tinnitus had a greater degree of hearing loss than the patients with compensated form of tinnitus. In addition, we demonstrate that the degree of hearing loss positively correlates with the two subscales ("intrusiveness" and "auditory perceptional difficulties") of the Tinnitus Questionnaire. Our retrospective study provides indirect evidence supporting the hypothesis that the degree of noise-induced hearing loss influences the severity of tinnitus.

Keywords: noise; noise-induced hearing loss; quality of life; tinnitus.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Pure tone audiogram measured on the left and right ear of the male and female tinnitus patients with hearing loss in the upper frequency range. Given are the means ± confidence intervals.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Tinnitus frequency (A) and tinnitus loudness (B) measured in the right and left ear of the male and female tinnitus patients with hearing loss. Given are the medians, percentiles (25–75%) and min-max values.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Hearing loss measured in the right and left ears of patients with compensated and decompensated tinnitus. Given are the medians, percentiles (25–75%) and min-max vales. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 vs. compensated tinnitus.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
TQ scores measured in the three age groups of tinnitus patients with the hearing loss. Given are the means ± confidence intervals *p < 0.05 vs. patients < 45 years.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Total TQ scores (A) and scores of the subscale “somatic complaints” (B) measured in patients with left-side, right-side or bilateral tinnitus. Given are the means ± confidence intervals. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 vs. right-side tinnitus.
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