Association between age and psychoacoustic characteristics and prognosis of tinnitus patients

Acta Universitatis Medicinalis Anhui 2021 05 v.56 835-838     font:big middle small

Found programs:

Authors:Yan Lin; Wang Weiqing; Wu Xiaoman

Keywords:age;subjective tinnitus;psychoacoustics

DOI:10.19405/j.cnki.issn1000-1492.2021.05.032

〔Abstract〕 The data of 218 patients with tinnitus, including specialist otolaryngology examination, hearing measurement, tinnitus matching, tinnitus handicap inventory(THI), VAS annoyance, and tinnitus multielement integration sound therapy(T-MIST) were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into 4 groups according to age: 18~30 y, 31~44 y, 45~60 y and 61~70 y. The effects of clinical characteristics, hearing level, matching tinnitus pitch and loudness, tinnitus handicap inventory(THI), visual assessment scale(VAS) annoyance, and residual inhibition(RI) were compared among the four groups. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the prognosis of the patients treated by voice therapy in the groups. However, the age was correlated with annoyance, THI and tinnitus loudness(P<0.05). The hearing loss, tinnitus loudness, THI and VAS annoyance increased with the increase of the age(P<0.05). Therefore, the age had no effect on the prognosis of acoustic therapy. Compared with the younger patients, the elderly were more easily affected by the psychological disorders because of tinnitus. Account for most of the elderly tinnitus patients with hearing loss, hearing rehabilitation should give priority to this age group.