Tinnitus in patients recovering after COVID-19: observational and cross-sectional study

In our study, it was aimed to determine the tinnitus rate in patients who recovered from COVID-19.

The study included 279 individuals aged 18–60 years, who recovered from COVID-19 within the last month and did not have a chronic disease. Visual Analogue Scale and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory were used for assessment in participants with tinnitus.

While 201 participants (72.00%) included in the study stated that they did not have tinnitus, 78 participants (28.00%) reported that they had tinnitus. Twenty-eight (10%) of the participants stated that they had no tinnitus before COVID-19 and that tinnitus started with COVID treatment; 16 (5.70%) of the participants stated that tinnitus was not present before COVID-19 and started after recovery. The mean tinnitus severity was 4.50 ± 2.16; tinnitus frequency/duration was 4.19 ± 2.45; tinnitus discomfort was 4.41 ± 2.50, and the total scores of the tinnitus handicap inventory were 49.56 ± 9.81. There was statistically borderline significance between tinnitus frequency/duration scores according to age groups (p = 0.052). Statistically significant differences were found for tinnitus severity (p = 0.033) and discomfort scores (p = 0.014) according to age groups. In addition, a statistically significant difference was observed between the tinnitus severity scores of the participants with and without a history of hospitalization (p = 0.035).

Clinicians should keep in mind that tinnitus can be caused by COVID-19 as well as pre-existing tinnitus can be exacerbated by it but most participants in our study did not have post-COVID-19 tinnitus.