Abstract
Objective
To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Tinnitus Impact Questionnaire (TIQ), whose questions focus on assessing the impact of tinnitus on the patient’s day to day activities, mood, and sleep, and not on hearing difficulties.
Design
This was a retrospective cross-sectional study.
Study sample
Data were included for 172 adult patients who attended a tinnitus and hyperacusis clinic in the UK within a six-month period and who had completed the TIQ.
Results
Two items whose scores were very highly correlated with those for other items were removed, leaving seven items. Exploratory factor analysis suggested a single factor for the TIQ. A multiple causes multiple indicator model showed significant but very small direct effects of age on TIQ scores for two items, after adjustment for gender. The TIQ had excellent internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha = 0.89. The total TIQ score was moderately to strongly correlated with scores for the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, Screening for Anxiety and Depression-Tinnitus questionnaire, Hyperacusis Questionnaire, and Hyperacusis Impact Questionnaire, indicating convergent validity. The TIQ score was weakly correlated with the pure-tone average hearing threshold, indicating discriminant validity.
Conclusions
The TIQ is a brief, valid and internally consistent questionnaire for assessing the impact of tinnitus.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the members of the THTSC at the RSFT, Guildford, UK, for their help in data collection. The authors also thank three reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).