Comparing listening effort among patients with hearing loss combined with tinnitus, hearing loss alone and a control group.

Abstract

Objective: This study compared listening effort (LE) in adults with tinnitus and hearing loss (HL+Tin), hearing loss alone (HL), and a control group (Control).

Design and study sample: A case-control study involved 78 adults (aged 20-60). Participants underwent pure tone audiometry, the depression, anxiety, stress scale (DASS-21), speech-in-noise test (Quick-SIN), and Stroop test. The Quick-SIN and Stroop tests were taken twice, separately and simultaneously (dual-task paradigm). LE was derived from Stroop test outcomes, measuring selective attention (SA) and reaction time (RT) in dual-task versus baseline conditions.

Results: No significant differences emerged in PTA, age, or DASS-21 scores between HL+Tin and HL groups. However, HL+Tin showed higher LE than HL for SA (Padj = 0.049) and RT (Padj = 0.047) with neutral words, but not emotional words (Padj = 0.283, 0.117). For the tinnitus group, regression analyses identified age, depression, and tinnitus severity (THI scores) as significant LE predictors, with age and THI most influential.

Conclusions: LE is shaped by age, psychological distress, and tinnitus severity, suggesting integrated management of psychological and tinnitus-related factors to ease the cognitive load in listening tasks. Age and THI were consistently associated with greater LE across both SA and RT tasks.