Comparing listening effort among patients with hearing loss combined with tinnitus, hearing loss alone and a control group.

OBJECTIVE

This study compared listening effort (LE) in adults with tinnitus and hearing loss (HL+Tin), hearing loss alone (HL), and a control group (Control).

DESIGN AND STUDY SAMPLE: A case-control study involved 78 adults (aged 20-60). Participants underwent pure tone audiometry, the depression, anxiety, stress scale (DASS-21), speech-in-noise test (Quick-SIN), and Stroop test. The Quick-SIN and Stroop tests were taken twice, separately and simultaneously (dual-task paradigm). LE was derived from Stroop test outcomes, measuring selective attention (SA) and reaction time (RT) in dual-task versus baseline conditions.

RESULTS

No significant differences emerged in PTA, age, or DASS-21 scores between HL+Tin and HL groups. However, HL+Tin showed higher LE than HL for SA (Padj = 0.049) and RT (Padj = 0.047) with neutral words, but not emotional words (Padj = 0.283, 0.117). For the tinnitus group, regression analyses identified age, depression, and tinnitus severity (THI scores) as significant LE predictors, with age and THI most influential.

CONCLUSIONS

LE is shaped by age, psychological distress, and tinnitus severity, suggesting integrated management of psychological and tinnitus-related factors to ease the cognitive load in listening tasks. Age and THI were consistently associated with greater LE across both SA and RT tasks.