What would an evidence-based tinnitus patient education program look like? Findings from a scoping review

ABSTRACT

Objective: The purpose of this project was to identify the strategies available to educate patients about tinnitus and to provide guidelines and instructions on how to develop better tinnitus education intervention.

Method: A scoping review of peer-reviewed published articles about tinnitus education was conducted. After an initial review of 306 articles, 18 were included in the final review. The information extracted included data on the content conveyed to patients about tinnitus, the format employed, the process used to develop the educational materials, and patients’ outcomes linked to tinnitus education.

Results: The outcomes provided by the interventions were perceptual, behavioral, and clinical in nature. The format and the content provided by the interventions were heterogeneous. Effective tinnitus education interventions provided specific coping strategies in their curriculum.

Conclusion: Educating patients about tinnitus is important to improving their perceptions of the condition and their management behaviors. Healthcare providers and patients need to collaborate to create patient-centered, ad hoc plans. It is important to identify patients’ expectations about the outcomes and shared goals. The educational curricula should include basic anatomy and physiology of the auditory system as well as coping strategies, such as attention distraction mechanisms and sound therapy.

KEYWORDS:

• Tinnitus
• tinnitus management
• patient education
• tinnitus education intervention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aurora Occa

Aurora Occa, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Kentucky. Her research is focused on advancing the development and evaluation of persuasive messages for health communication campaigns and interventions.

Susan E. Morgan

Susan E. Morgan, PhD is a Professor of Communication at the University of Miami. Her research interests involve the design and evaluation of persuasive messages targeting health behavior change in multicultural populations.

Tricia Lynn Scaglione

Tricia Lynn Scaglione, AuD is an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of Miami. She is also Director of the Tinnitus and Sound Sensitivities Clinic, and Associate Director of Clinical Education in Audiology for the UM Department of Otolaryngology.

Brianna Kuzbyt

Brianna Kuzbyt, AuD is an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of Miami. She specializes in tinnitus and sound sensitivities, auditory and vestibular diagnostic testing, auditory evoked potentials, and hearing aids.

Richard J. Bookman

Richard J. Bookman, PhD is Director of the UHealth Care Lab, a center for innovation in care delivery at the University of Miami Health System, where he also serves as Senior Advisor for Program Development & Policy. He is an Associate Professor of Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology at UM’s Miller School of Medicine.