Objective: Identify clinical factors that predict the likelihood of patients returning for further evaluation and treatment following stage 1 education and counselling in a staged tinnitus habituation program.
Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study. Demographics, audiometric findings and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) scores were used for predictive modelling to determine the likelihood of patients returning for subsequent therapy.
Study samples: One hundred and ninety consecutive patients treated in an outpatient, staged tinnitus habituation program.
Results: Improvements in THI scores were observed in all subjects (n = 119, d = 0.49, p < 0.001), both for those without hearing loss (n = 13, d = 0.54, p = 0.03) and those with hearing loss (n = 106, d = 0.48, p < 0.001) following Stage 1 education and counselling. Subjects with hearing loss were 14 times more likely to return for Stage 2 evaluation (p < 0.001) following completion of Stage 1 education and counselling.
Conclusion: Subjects with idiopathic subjective non-pulsatile tinnitus across all degrees of tinnitus severity benefit from group education and counselling alone. Subjects with hearing loss, irrespective of most hearing loss configurations, are more likely to return for subsequent stages of the program.
Keywords: Tinnitus; education and counselling; hearing loss; tinnitus therapy.