About 15% of people with tinnitus experience it daily, and 10% say it has moderately or entirely interfered with their ability to hear clearly, a study of 160,000 tinnitus sufferers shows.
However, most experience brief episodes and describe their tinnitus as a pure tone with the majority likening it to the tones in a songbird’s call. Most said it was a single tone while one in six identified it as a high-pitched, whistling teakettle tone.
University of Michigan researchers reviewed a cohort in the Apple Hearing Study, one of three landmark public health studies in the research app on iPhone.
The research aims to improve understanding of tinnitus characteristics and inform future research on potential treatments.
In a 10-minute task, they answered survey questions and completed app-based assessments to characterise their experience of tinnitus, matching the type and quality of sounds they experienced.
“Roughly 15% of our participants experience tinnitus daily,” said Dr Rick Neitzel, University of Michigan School of Public Health’s professor of environmental health sciences.
“Tinnitus is something that can have a large impact on a person’s life. The trends that we’re learning through the Apple Hearing Study about people’s experience with tinnitus can help us better understand the groups most at risk, which can in turn help guide efforts to reduce the impacts associated with it.
“The Apple Hearing Study gives us an opportunity that was not possible before to improve our understanding of tinnitus across demographics, aiding current scientific knowledge that can ultimately improve management of tinnitus.”
Findings include:
- Of all participants in the study, 77.6% had experienced tinnitus in their life, with the prevalence of daily tinnitus increasing with age among many.
- 8% of those aged 55 or older constantly experience tinnitus.
- People aged 55 and over were three times more likely to hear tinnitus daily than those aged 18-24.
- 10% report their tinnitus has moderately or entirely interfered with their ability to hear clearly.
- 7% more males than females experience daily tinnitus.
Methods to ease tinnitus
Participants reported mainly trying three methods to ease their existing tinnitus:
- using noise machines (28%)
- listening to nature sounds (23.7%)
- and practising meditation (12.2%)
- Less than 2.1% chose cognitive and behavioural therapy to manage the condition.
Participants felt noise trauma or exposure to excessively high levels of noise was the main cause of their tinnitus (20.3%), followed closely by stress (7.7%).
Characterising tinnitus
- Most experience brief episodes compared to 14.7% who have constant tinnitus.
- Duration significantly increases with age among participants 55 and older: 35.8% of this age group constantly experience tinnitus.
- Male participants experience constant tinnitus nearly 7% more than females.
- Most found tinnitus levels were faint, with 34.4% calling it noticeable compared to 8.8% who found it very loud or ultra loud,
- 10% said their tinnitus had moderately or entirely interfered with their ability to hear clearly.
- Most described their tinnitus as a pure tone (78.5%) or white noise (17.4%). Among those who described a pure tone, 90.8% reported a pitch at 4 kilohertz or above, similar to the tones in a songbird’s call, 83.5% identified their tinnitus as a single tone while 16.5% identified it as a teakettle tone — a high-pitched, whistling sound.
- For participants who matched their tinnitus to a white noise, 57.7% iidentified it as a static tone, 21.7% compared it to a cricket tone, 11.2% said it was an electric tone, and 9.4% identified it as a pulse tone.
Conducted in collaboration with the University of Michigan, the Apple Hearing Study advances the understanding of sound exposure and its impact on hearing health.
Researchers have collected about 400 million hours of calculated environmental sound levels supplemented with lifestyle surveys to analyse how sound exposure affects hearing, stress and hearing-related aspects of health.
Study data will also be shared with the World Health Organization as a contribution to its Make Listening Safe initiative.
Apple says its technology has several features to support hearing health in its Apple iPhones and Apple watches.
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