Clinical research studyPrevalence and Characteristics of Tinnitus among US Adults
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Study Population
Participants from the NHANES 1999-2000, 2001-2002, and 2003-2004 surveys were included in our study. NHANES provides nationally representative cross-sectional data on the health status of the civilian, non-institutionalized US population. After selection in a complex survey design, participants were interviewed and examined. The design of NHANES has been described previously.12 Because older individuals, Mexican-Americans, and black individuals were intentionally over-represented, NHANES
Results
Characteristics of participants with any and frequent tinnitus are shown in Table 1. Responses from 14,178 participants in our analytic dataset corresponded to a prevalence among US adults of 25.3% (approximately 50 million) of experiencing any tinnitus, and 7.9% (approximately 16 million) of experiencing frequent tinnitus in the past year. The prevalence of any and frequent tinnitus increased with increasing age, peaking at 31.4% and 14.3%, respectively, at age 60-69 years. Overall, the
Discussion
The overall prevalence of tinnitus in the US was 25.3%, corresponding to a national estimate of 50 million adults. This prevalence is consistent with the upper range of the overall estimate previously reported from the NHIS (35-50 million).3 Similar to data from the Beaver Dam cohort,11 the prevalence of tinnitus in our study increased with age until the age of 60-69 years, after which it decreased with increasing age. This inverse relationship between age and tinnitus in older age groups has
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Funding: This work was supported by the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Foundation and with resources and the use of facilities at the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center, VA Boston Healthcare System.
Conflict of Interest: The authors of this study had no conflicts of interest as pertaining to this study. No pharmaceutical industry funds were received for the preparation of this manuscript or any related research.
Authorship: All authors had access to the data and participated in the writing of the manuscript.