According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Nottingham, approximately 65 million adults in the European Union (EU) suffer from tinnitus, a figure that is expected to rise significantly over the next decade.
The research, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, is the first study to look rigorously at the prevalence of tinnitus across the populations of 12 EU member states.
The study was led by Roshni Biswas from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, working with a team of experts from the University of Nottingham, the the Istituto di Ricerche Farmologiche Mario Negri IRCCS in Milan, Herriot-Watt University in Malaysia and the University of Regensburg in Germany.
Prevalence of Tinnitus
It’s important to know the prevalence of tinnitus in different countries, but previous data has been difficult to compare across country because measurements have often been done in different ways. The aim of this particular study was to report a single European-wide estimate for tinnitus frequency and to investigate the effect of individual and country-level characteristics on prevalence.
Over 11,000 people were recruited between 2017 and 2018, to take part in a cross sectional European Tinnitus Survey in 12 EU nations (Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain), using a set of tinnitus-related questions and response options.
The team found that:
- The prevalence of any type of tinnitus was 14% (1.2% higher in women than in men);
- Severe tinnitus was found in 1.2% of participants;
- Tinnitus prevalence significantly increased with age and worsening of hearing;
- Healthcare resource use for tinnitus increased with the increase of tinnitus symptom severity.
“This is the first time that we’ve properly and rigorously measured the scale of how much of a problem tinnitus is across Europe as a whole. Tinnitus can affect people’s mental wellbeing, and as the population grows, and people live for longer, this problem will only get worse. We hope that this date can now be used to implement effective treatments and to encourage the appropriate stakeholders across the EU to look at how they can tackle this growing problem.”
–Michael Akeroyd, Study co-author and Professor of Hearing Sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham
Reference:
R. Biswas, A. Lugo, M.A. Akeroyd, W. Schlee, S. Gallus, D.A. Hall. Tinnitus prevalence in Europe: a multi-country cross-sectional population study, The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, 2021, 100250, ISSN 2666-7762, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100250.
Source: University of Nottingham
