Tinnitus Questionnaires

Quantitative assessment of the different aspects of tinnitus is important for clinical management of tinnitus patients and essential for research applications. Tinnitus is a subjective phenomenon, and there exist no established biomarkers. Assessment should include various aspects of tinnitus such as loudness, annoyance, distress, disability, and handicap. A variety of validated questionnaires are available for quantifying tinnitus distress, disability, or handicap. Numeric rating scales and visual analog scales have been validated for the assessment of tinnitus loudness and annoyance. In this chapter, we will discuss general requirements and psychometric properties of questionnaires and then present the most widely used instruments in detail. The selection of the questionnaire should be based on purpose (What should be assessed?), but also on psychometric data of the questionnaire and the availability of the questionnaire in a specific language.