The Study
Hearing Aids Combined With Educational Counseling Versus Educational Counseling Alone for Tinnitus Treatment in Patients With Hearing Loss: A Longitudinal Follow-Up Study.
This study watched two groups of people with ringing in their ears — one group got hearing aids and counseling, the other just got counseling. It found both groups felt about the same after a few months. But because people chose which group to join, we can't say the hearing aids made the difference — maybe the people who picked hearing aids were already more hopeful or had different hearing problems.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Doctors gave people with tinnitus and hearing loss either just advice (counseling) or advice plus hearing aids. Both groups felt better, but the hearing aids didn't make them feel any better than the advice alone.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 539 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — hearing aids didn't add meaningful benefit beyond counseling, even though counseling alone helped many people feel better within 3 months.
- 272 people were studied.
- 321 used hearing aids, 51 didn't.
- 4Both groups had similar drops in tinnitus scores (THI, TEQ, VAS).
- 5About the same number in each group (≥20-point THI drop) felt significantly better.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR
Year
2023
Authors
Xunyi Wang, Lanxi Guo, Run Tian, Yingping Fei, Jinfeng Ji, C. Diao, Lin Zuo, Yuxiao Zeng, Qi Guo, Kefan Chen, Yun Zheng
Related Content
Claims (6)
Hearing aids increase the volume of external sounds but do not lessen the ringing sensation associated with tinnitus.
In adults with chronic tinnitus and sensorineural hearing loss, educational counseling alone reduces tinnitus severity over three months, as measured by standardized questionnaires and scales.
For adults with chronic tinnitus and hearing loss, using hearing aids along with educational counseling provides no greater reduction in tinnitus impact than educational counseling alone over three months, based on standardized tinnitus assessment scores.
For people with tinnitus who receive educational counseling, using hearing aids does not result in a higher rate of significant symptom improvement compared to not using hearing aids.
Among adults with tinnitus and hearing loss, those who choose to use hearing aids tend to have different levels of tinnitus severity or motivation at the start, but after accounting for these differences, hearing aids do not provide any additional benefit.
For adults with chronic tinnitus and hearing loss, using hearing aids or other treatments produces most of its benefit within the first month, and extending treatment beyond that to three months does not improve outcomes.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.