Effects of Educational Counseling as Solitary Therapy for Chronic Primary Tinnitus and Related Problems

Table 2

Demographic and clinical characteristics of the effective and noneffective groups, defined by THI score.

Characteristic	Effective; ( = 96)	Noneffective; ( = 63)	P
Gender, no. of males : no. of females	50 : 46	27 : 36	0.255
Mean age ± SD, years	44.03 ± 13.12	46.13 ± 13.93	0.338
Hearing loss, N (%)	64 (66.7%)	46 (73.0%)	0.396
Education degree, N (%)			0.197
Primary school	7 (7.3%)	7 (11.1%)
Junior high school	24 (25.0%)	10 (15.9%)
Senior high school	16 (16.7%)	18 (28.6%)
University	44 (45.8%)	27 (42.9%)
Master’s degree or higher	5 (5.2%)	1 (1.6%)
Character traits
Impatient	49 (51.0%)	41 (65.1%)	0.081
Anxious for others	43 (44.8%)	29 (46.0%)	0.878
Irritable	38 (39.6%)	17 (27.0%)	0.102
Nervous	42 (43.8%)	12 (19.0%)	0.001
Suspicious	11 (11.5%)	4 (6.3%)	0.281
Perfectionist	17 (17.7%)	17 (27.0%)	0.163
Median tinnitus duration, months (IQR)	24 (62)	24 (48)	0.798
Mean initial THI score ± SD	51.25 ± 20.85	38.60 ± 23.15	<0.001
Mean first-to-last-contact interval ± SD, days	35.41 ± 20.86	35.10 ± 20.14	0.926
Sleep quality at first contact	7.38 ± 2.98	6.76 ± 3.29	0.225
Sleep quality at last contact	5.85 ± 2.45	7.00 ± 3.05	0.010
Change in sleep quality, (%)
Improved	53 (55.2%)	15 (23.8%)	<0.001
Not improved	43 (44.8%)	48 (76.2%)
Sleep advice compliance, (%)			0.017
Better	76 (79.2%)	39 (61.9%)
Worse	20 (20.8%)	24 (38.1%)

THI, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory.
Chi-squared test, one-way ANOVA, and Mann–Whitney U test.