Did Life Under Lockdown Make Tinnitus Worse For Sufferers? | Research News

With the introduction of national lockdowns across the UK, the Covid-19 pandemic suspended our normal activities and for many increased worries and anxieties.

It’s fair to imagine based on this, that during the longer days and with less distractions, health conditions could feel ‘worse’, aggravated by stress and more noticeable living under lockdown.

Dr Hashir Aazh, a Royal Surrey honorary hearing research consultant, undertook a study to establish whether the severity of tinnitus for sufferers was in fact made worse because of the lockdowns, seeking to establish if there was a link.

His collaborative work between Royal Surrey and the Universities of Cambridge and Florida Atlantic has recently been published in the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

The study compared the audiology records of two independent groups of new patients, one assessed during the three months of lockdown in the UK and one assessed during the same period in the preceding year. Overall, audiology records of 228 patients were reviewed. Both groups, were all new sufferers reporting tinnitus for the first time and were reasonably well matched in age, gender, and severity of hearing loss.  

Results showed that self-report ratings for tinnitus loudness, annoyance and impact on life did not differ significantly between new patients seen prior to and during lockdown.

Dr Aazh explains why the reasons for this could be: “It’s possible that the pandemic related factors exacerbate the experience of tinnitus, as tinnitus is linked to general anxiety and psychological wellbeing. But perhaps the serious problems caused by the pandemic put the patient’s tinnitus into perspective, leading to a decrease of the impact of tinnitus that counteracted any effect of increased anxiety and decreased wellbeing. This reminds us of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and psychological wellbeing.”

For people interested in reading more about the study, you can access a copy of the paper here.

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