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Abstract
Objectives: Hyperacusis appears to be a subjective phenomenon, which is not easily defined or quantified by objective measurements. The primary aim of this work was to evaluate the Arabic version of the Khalfa questionnaire for hyperacusis on a sample of normal hearing Egyptians complaining of hyperacusis. The secondary aim was to compare the audiological criteria of this group of hyperacusis patients (with or without tinnitus) with a control group of similar age and gender. Study design: The study group comprised 60 adult patients (age range 19–45 years) having normal hearing and complaining of hyperacusis with or without tinnitus. The control group comprised 20 normal hearing age and gender-matched individuals. All patients were subjected to full history-taking, otological examination, pure tone audiometry, immittance audiometry, uncomfortable loudness levels (ULLs) assessment, a transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) test and, in addition, to the Arabic version of the Khalfa hyperacusis questionnaire. Results: The uncomfortable loudness levels indicated a markedly contracted dynamic range in the hyperacusis group, with the majority of individuals showing ULLs less than 90dB HL. Hyperacusis patients with tinnitus showed significantly lower TEOAEs amplitudes, with overall echo level and reproducibility percent lower than for hyperacusis patients without tinnitus or for the control group. Hyperacusis patients had higher means of total, attentional, social, and emotional scores on the Khalfa questionnaire compared to the control group. The emotional parameter of the questionnaire had the highest score for the hyperacusis patients. Both the emotional and attentional dimension scores were higher in females, while attentional scores were higher for males. The total and social dimensions were affected by age. Conclusions: The emotional impact of noise exposure was more severe than the attentional and social impact in hyperacusis patients. There was a gender difference evident in the results of the Khalfa questionnaire in hyperacusis patients. The Arabic version of the Khalfa hyperacusis questionnaire seems to be a fairly effective tool for the assessment of hyperacusis patients.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.