%0 Journal Article
%T The More the Worse: the Grade of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Associates with the Severity of Tinnitus
%A Birgit Mazurek
%A Heidi Olze
%A Heidemarie Haupt
%A Agnieszka J. Szczepek
%J International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
%D 2010
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/ijerph7083071
%X 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.
%K noise
%K noise-induced hearing loss
%K tinnitus
%K quality of life
%U http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/8/3071