Factors associated with Self Rated Health in persons with tinnitus from the general population, 2021, Wagenaara, Rosmalen et al

Highlights

• 84% of 8,011 cohort participants with tinnitus reported good self-rated health (SRH).
• Predictors of SRH in tinnitus were comorbidity, personality, sleep, social contacts.
• Tinnitus was negatively associated with SRH in the general population.

Abstract

Objectives
Tinnitus, the perception of a sound without a corresponding external source, may be associated with decreased Self-Rated Health (SRH). Most research on tinnitus has been done in clinical populations. We aimed to study factors associated with SRH in individuals reporting tinnitus from the general population.

Methods
In this cross-sectional study, we used data of participants of the Lifelines population-based cohort who answered the question: “Do you hear soughing or whistling in your ear or ears?” (N=124,490). SRH was assessed using the RAND-36 item on SRH. Linear regression was used to study associations between SRH and impairment of hearing, physical and mental health, lifestyle, personality, and demographic features, in the group reporting always tinnitus (N=8,011). Models were also run in the entire study cohort, to test whether tinnitus was associated with SRH after adjustment for these variables.

Results
Of all participants, 6.4% reported always hearing tinnitus, with 83.7% of these reporting good to excellent SRH. The strongest positive associations with SRH in the group reporting always tinnitus were found for younger age, higher education levels, good sleep quality, more social contacts, absence of irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia, high competence, and low impulsivity. In the total population, tinnitus was negatively associated with SRH, while adjusting for demographic features, physical and mental health history, lifestyle, and personality.

Conclusion
Our findings contribute to increased understanding of resilience towards the negative consequences of tinnitus. In their early encounters with tinnitus patients, clinicians could focus on self-help regarding sleep hygiene and stimulate social activities.

Open access, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002239992100338X

 

Well, I can say for certain that unless there is a translation issue, this being a Dutch study, in my case, despite having had tinnitus for many years, I would have answered no to this question. I did not know the meaning of soughing, it's basically the kind of sound wind makes in trees, so even knowing this I would have to say no. I do not hear whistling in my ears either. It's a specific question, that is not how tinnitus is described, or sounds like.

Is this the art of asking bad questions? Because it's a terrible question that leads to unusable results.

I have no question how they assessed "competence". Competence at what? Whatever. And how does one "adjust result for personality"?! Those conclusions are positively weird and I really need to find the latin word for ass so I will simply say ex nihilo but there's a translation issue here so bear with me.