Abstract
Tinnitus is a common finding which can adversely affect the quality of life in a relatively small proportion of individuals. The aspects of quality of life affected may differ between individuals but the commonest are psychological or emotional effects, impact on lifestyle, sleep disturbance, auditory and health effects. There is a number of types of measures used to assess the quality of life effects of tinnitus. Generic measures may be used to compare the effects of tinnitus with other conditions before and after intervention and may have a useful application in resource allocation. Tinnitus‐specific measures can be helpful in identifying the specifically troublesome effects of tinnitus and the impact of tinnitus on different domains of quality of life. These can be useful in planning rehabilitative strategies and assessing outcome measures of different interventions. Both generic and tinnitus‐specific measures use a variety of approaches, and the uses and limitations of each approach and type of measure should be considered before implementation. In this paper we discuss the uses, findings and limitations of the more commonly used measures in the assessment of the effect of tinnitus on the quality of life.