Tinnitusprävalenz und korrelierende klinisch-demografische Faktoren in der HCHS-Kohorte

Introduction: The prevalence of tinnitus and associations between clinical and demographic evaluated. Especially with regard to the socioeconomic factors and gender, the results in the cited literature are divergent. With the help of the Hamburg City Health Study (HCHS) cohort we would like to contribute to the extended data situation due to the high number of participants and discuss the possible associated factors in a Western European country.

Methods: In the HCHS cohort 2.765 of 14.355 participants (45-74 years) indicated suffering from tinnitus. For the control group, we matched 2.765 participants without tinnitus. Chi-squared tests, Spearman's rank correlation and point-biserial correlation was used to identify the dependence of prevalence of tinnitus of clinical and demographic factors.

Results: Tinnitus prevalence in this large cohort is 19,3%. In our cohort tinnitus was significantly associated with older age, male sex, night-shift work, lower net income, sleep apnea, migraine and higher daily noise exposure. Furthermore middle and inner ear surgery, hearing loss, hearing aids, shingles and medications (e.g. like acetylsalicylic acid and antidepressants) are significantly associated with tinnitus. In the tinnitus group there were significantly less academics and participants with diabetes mellitus. Other factors like relationship status, Parkinson or multiple sclerosis showed no association with tinnitus.

Discussion: In this large cohort analysis tinnitus is significantly associated with several factors like male sex, night-shift work, sleep apnea, unemployment and medication (like acetylsalicylic acid and antidepressants).

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