Assessing Auditory Processing Deficits in Tinnitus and Hearing Impaired Patients with the Auditory Behavior Questionnaire

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Auditory processing disorders (APD), tinnitus and hearing loss (HL) are typical issues reported by patients in audiologic clinics. These auditory impairments can be concomitant or mutually excluding. APD are not necessarily accompanied by significant HL, whereas many adults exhibit peripheral HL and typical cognitive deficits often associated with APD. Since HL, tinnitus and APD affects to several parts of the ascending auditory pathway from the periphery to the auditory cortex, there could be some interrelationship between them. For instance, tinnitus has been reported to degrade the auditory localization capacity. Tinnitus is believed to be triggered by deafferentation of normal peripheral input to the central auditory system. This peripheral deficit can be accompanied by HL or not, since a type of permanent cochlear damage (thus deafferentation) without an elevation of hearing thresholds might persist. Therefore, a combined study of APD, tinnitus and HL on the same cohort of patients can be audiologically relevant and worthy.Methods: Statistical analysis is applied to a cohort of 305 patients attending an audiology clinic in Madrid (Spain). This group of patients is first categorized in four subgroups, namely, HLTG (with tinnitus and HL), NHLTG (with tinnitus and without HL), HLNTG (with HL but no tinnitus), and NHLNTG (neither tinnitus nor HL). The statistical variables include Age, Average Auditory Threshold (ATT), for assessing HL, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), for measuring tinnitus, and a new 25-item Auditory Behavior Questionnaire (ABQ), for scoring APD. Factor analysis is applied to arrange these items into 4 subscales. The internal consistency reliability of this ABQ is confirmed by calculating Cronbach's coefficients α. The test-retest reliability is assessed by the intraclass correlation coefficients, ICC. Statistical techniques applied to the data set include descriptive analysis of variables and Spearman rank correlations (ρ) between them.Results: Overall reliability of ABQ is confirmed by an α value of 0.89 and by an ICC of 0.91. Regarding the internal consistency reliability, the four subscales prove a fairly good consistency with α coefficients above 0.7. Average values of statistical variables show significantly lower age of patients with tinnitus and no HL, which can provide a cue of noise overexposure of this segment of population. These younger patients show also decreased ABQ and similar THI in comparison with patients in the other subgroups. A strong correlation (ρ = 0.63) was found between AAT and Age for the HLNTG subgroup. For the HLTG subgroup, a moderate correlation (ρ = 0.44) was found between ABQ and THI.Conclusion: The utilized questionnaire (ABQ), together with AAT and THI, can help to study comorbid hearing impairments in patients regularly attending an audiological clinic.

Effect of Tinnitus and Duration of Deafness on Sound Localization and Speech Recognition in Noise in Patients With Single-Sided Deafness

“…Tinnitus is often accompanied by hearing loss ( Kim et al., 2011 ) but may even play a significant role in auditory perception irrespective of hearing loss. This is because tinnitus may result from deafferentiation of peripheral input to the central auditory system, which may or may not be reflected by a measurable change in auditory thresholds ( Diges, Simon, & Cobo, 2017 ). Mertens, Kleine Punte, De Ridder, and Van de Heyning (2013) evaluated the association between tinnitus severity in the deaf ear and speech recognition in noise in the NH (nontinnitus) ear by turning on or off the external cochlear implant (CI) processor in SSD patients with CI.…”

The influence of the bimodal stimulation on the auditory ability of temporal ordering

“…The use of contralateral ISAD promotes important benefits to implanted individuals: bimodal stimulation can take advantage of residual hearing, improve the location of the sound source and assist in understanding the conversation, especially in environments with competitive noise 1 . However, a national study reports that bimodal stimulation is still little used by implanted patients, and this fact may be related to the lack of perception about the benefits brought by ISAD 27 .…”

“…The sense of hearing is fundamental for the development of oral communication and, consequently, for human social interaction. The auditory system transmits environmental and speech sounds to the auditory cortex, where the information is processed to produce a perception of the signal 1 . Auditory alterations can seriously impact quality of life, affecting social, professional and psychological aspects of the individual.…”

Relating tinnitus features and audiometric characteristics in a cohort of 34 tinnitus subjects

“…Then, scatter plots and Spearman rank correlation analysis are applied to paired tinnitus and audiological variables. Spearman rank correlation is used to identify and test the strength of relationships between these variables (Diges, Simón, & Cobo, 2017). Positive Spearman correlation coefficients (ρ) between x and y variables denote that both variables increase monotonically, and vice versa, a negative correlation coefficient indicates that when x increases y decreases monotonically.…”

“…Tinnitus is the conscious perception of sound heard in the absence of physical sound sources external or internal to the body (Eggermont & Tass, 2015). Epidemiological studies report that tinnitus roughly affects 10 % of the adult population (Hall et al, 2015) and severely disturbs the quality of life of about 1-2 % of adults by producing anxiety, annoyance, irritability, disturbed sleep patterns, and depression (Cobo, 2015;Diges, Simón, & Cobo, 2017;Van de Heyning et al, 2007;Vio & Holme, 2005).…”