gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: Our recent study on the effect of a multidisciplinary 7-day tinnitus therapy has demonstrated that gender, age and duration of illness may influence the outcome of therapy. In order to get more information about these differences, we analyzed pre-therapeutic scores of patients with chronic tinnitus in respect to gender and age of the patients as well as duration of tinnitus.

Methods: The study group included 607 female and 573 male patients. The patients’ age ranged between 17 and 81 years in both gender groups. In addition to hearing loss (0.5–8 kHz) and tinnitus pitch and loudness, we measured tinnitus annoyance, perceived stress, proactive coping strategies and sense of coherence. We tested the relationship between the parameters measured and analyzed the gender differences between 3 subgroups each regarding age and duration of tinnitus.

Results: Women had lower hearing loss and tinnitus loudness, but higher tinnitus annoyance and stress perception than men. In addition, women scored lower than men in proactive coping strategies and sense of coherence. The duration of tinnitus had an effect on auditory perceptual difficulties and intrusiveness of tinnitus as well as on proactive coping. All scores were strongly influenced by age and gender. The greatest gender difference was found in the group of elderly patients (>60 years). The tinnitus annoyance increased until age 60. Thereafter, women’s scores remained constant whereas scores of men decreased again. Older patients perceived the lowest stress, but women still scored higher than men. The sense of coherence was highest in older patients, but women had lower scores than man.

Conclusion: The awareness and consideration of gender and age differences might improve the treatment of chronic tinnitus and provide tailored therapy approaches.