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Tinnitus, sound intolerance, and mental health: the role of long-term occupational noise exposure

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Correction to this article was published on 09 May 2022

This article has been updated

Abstract

Purpose

Whereas chronic noise exposure (CNE) is a known risk factor for tinnitus, little is known about how a history of CNE impacts tinnitus characteristics and its comorbid symptoms.

Methods

Seventy-five participants with chronic tinnitus (59m/16f, 22–78 years, 48 with sensory-neural hearing loss, and 27 with a normal audiogram) including 43 individuals with (Tin-CNE group) and 32 without (Tin group) a history of long-term occupational noise exposure were studied. Tinnitus characteristics were rated by a visual analog scale, and tinnitus comorbid symptoms were scored using self-assessment questionnaires.

Results

The Tin-CNE group showed reduced uncomfortable loudness level (ULL), sound tolerance, and quality of life (QoL), and increased tinnitus loudness, tinnitus handicap, anxiety, depression, insomnia severity, and tinnitus annoyance scores compared to the Tin group. Higher tinnitus loudness and a lower anxiety score were observed in participants with hearing loss relative to those without. Using a stepwise regression model also showed that tinnitus-related characteristics, hyperacusis, and tinnitus comorbid symptoms enhance one another.

Conclusions

The findings were in support of accumulative evidence indicating the adverse auditory and non-auditory effects of CNE, including exacerbated sound intolerance and tinnitus-related psychiatric symptoms. The results also showed that tinnitus alone can affect mental health regardless of hearing loss.

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Funding

This research received no external funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN), University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, T1K 3M4, Canada

    Zahra Jafari, Bryan E. Kolb & Majid H. Mohajerani

  2. Audiology First, Lethbridge, AB, T1J 4B5, Canada

    Thomas Copps, Glenn Hole & Femi Nyatepe-Coo

Authors
  1. Zahra Jafari
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  2. Thomas Copps
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  5. Bryan E. Kolb
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  6. Majid H. Mohajerani
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Contributions

Conceptualization: ZJ; experimentation and data acquisition: GH, TC, ZJ; formal analysis: ZJ; writing the original draft: ZJ; review and editing: ZJ, GH, TC, BEK, MHM.

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Correspondence to Zahra Jafari.

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The original online version of this article was revised due to the label of figures 1, 2 was published incorrectly and corrected in this version.

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Jafari, Z., Copps, T., Hole, G. et al. Tinnitus, sound intolerance, and mental health: the role of long-term occupational noise exposure. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 279, 5161–5170 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-022-07362-2

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