Comportamiento del acúfeno en la enfermedad de Ménière

Subjective hearing ability, physical and mental comorbidities in individuals with bothersome tinnitus in a Swedish population sample

OBJECTIVE

This study investigates associations of subjective hearing ability, physical comorbidities, and mental comorbidities with bothersome (vs. non-bothersome) tinnitus and mediating effects between these influences.

METHODS

The Swedish LifeGene cohort was used to sample cross-sectional survey data (collected 2009-2016) of 7615 participants with tinnitus, 697 (9.2%) of whom rated their tinnitus as bothersome. Associations between bothersome tinnitus and subjective hearing ability, physical and mental comorbidities were investigated by separate age- and gender-adjusted multiple logistic regression models. Interrelationships between these associations were investigated by logistic mediation models.

RESULTS

Compared to non-bothersome tinnitus, bothersome tinnitus was associated with higher age, reduced subjective hearing ability, hearing-related difficulties in social situations, cardiovascular disease, chronic shoulder pain, thyroid disease, Ménière's disease, depression, anxiety syndrome, and social anxiety. Subjective hearing impairment or hearing-related difficulties mediated 13-36% of the effects of mental comorbidities on bothersome tinnitus. Depression or anxiety syndrome mediated 5-8% of most relationships between physical comorbidities and bothersome tinnitus. Depression, anxiety syndrome, or social anxiety mediated 2-4% of the effects of subjective hearing impairment or hearing-related difficulties on bothersome tinnitus.

CONCLUSION

Psychological factors, subjective hearing impairment, and hearing-related difficulties in social situations play key roles in predicting bothersome (vs. non-bothersome) tinnitus in a large population sample. Psychological factors contribute to explaining the impact of physical comorbidities and hearing-related effects on bothersome tinnitus. This highlights their transdiagnostic importance for aggravating varied physical symptom clusters. Interventions to improve or prevent high tinnitus burden should be interdisciplinary/multimodal and target auditory, physical, and psychological factors.

The Reliability and Validity of "Dokuz Eylül University Meniere's Disease Disability Scale"

OBJECTIVE

Ménière's Disease (MD) is a chronic, non-life threatening inner ear disease, with attacks of disabling vertigo, progressive hearing loss, and tinnitus as the major symptoms. All three symptoms, separately or in combination, cause great distress and have a considerable impact on the quality of life of the patients. The aims of this study were to develop a disease-specific quality of life survey for patients with MD and to analyze the relationships between the audiovestibular findings and the survey.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Following Ear-Nose-Throat examination and audiovestibular tests, the Dokuz Eylül University Meniere's Disease Disability Scale (DEU-MDDS) and Turkish version of the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI-T) were administered to 93 patients with definite MD. Reliability and validity analyses of the scale were performed.

RESULTS

There were 45 (48.4%) male and 48 (51.6%) female patients and the mean age was 48.9±12.1 years. Cronbach's alpha was 0.92 and intraclass correlation coefficients of the DEU-MMDS were significant (p<0.001). Results of the Goodness of Fit Statistics showed that the expression levels of the items were high and the correlation coefficients of each item with the scale were sufficient. There was a statistically significant correlation between DHI-T scores and MDDS. DEU-MDDS was not related to the vestibular tests, age or gender (p>0.05).

CONCLUSION

The MDDS is a valid and reliable scale as a disease-specific quality of life questionnaire for patients with MD.