PP1125 - Prevalence of Tinnitus among Dallas Callier Center Pediatric Patients Pre and Post COVID Pandemic

This retrospective study seeks to assess the prevalence of reported tinnitus in a pediatric population from January 2018 to December 2021, as well as compare this prevalence, before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were gathered via examination of electronic records at the Callier Center in Dallas. Preliminary analysis of the data showed similar prevalence to previous reports, suggesting that approximately one in ten pediatric patients report tinnitus.   

Summary:

The purpose of this study was to document the prevalence of tinnitus in pediatric patients aged 5-18 years, seen at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders in Dallas, Texas. Additional analyses were performed to assess if there were any relationships among pediatric tinnitus prevalence and hearing loss status, previous histories including familial hearing loss and tinnitus, middle ear dysfunction, additional comorbidities, age and biological sex. A tertiary research question was whether there were any changes in the prevalence of pediatric tinnitus before, during, and after the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in March of 2020. Lastly, this study's purpose was to extend previous work on tinnitus prevalence collected from January 2015 to December 2017 and to compare these data to data gathered from January 2018 to December 2021.

It was hypothesized that the prevalence data collected from January 2018 to December 2021 will be broadly similar to previous data, which found greater prevalence of pediatric tinnitus in female patients and in patients with sensorineural hearing loss or normal hearing. It wa also hypothesized that the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in March of 2020 likely affected the number of reported pediatric tinnitus cases. Whether the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic shows an increase or decrease in reports in cases could be associated with the upper respiratory effects of the virus itself, increased stress on households during the COVID-19 pandemic, or conversely decreased ability to come into a physical clinic to report tinnitus.

This project utilized the cloud-based electronic health record system eClinicalWorks (eCW). Every patient seen at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders has a file with comprehensive information, including demographics, history diagnostic results. Every pediatric patient file form from January 2018 to December 2021 was reviewed to gather data on the prevalence of reported tinnitus. Participants for this study included patients aged 5 years to 17 years 11 months seen for audiologic services at the Callier Center that reported "ringing in ears" or tinnitus on their case history intake form or to their audiologist. Aggregate patient data was then separated into a pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic data by separating data gathered before vs. after March 13^th, 2020. This date indicates the day that a nationwide emergency was declared in the USA, which then shut down many American facilities, including the Callier Center. Other data gathered from patient files included hearing loss status, family history of hearing loss/tinnitus, history of middle ear dysfunction, comorbidities, age & biological sex. Chi-square tests of independence, α = .05, were used to identify relationships between presence of tinnitus and other variables.

Preliminary data suggests that 9% of total pediatric patients seen for audiological services at the Callier Center report experiencing tinnitus. These data  also showed that of the of the pediatric patient population seen at the Callier Center, 8.6% reported tinnitus, pre-COVID-19, and 10.9% reported tinnitus post-COVID-19 suggesting an increase in reported tinnitus. Significance and further conclusions are still being evaluated and drawn as more data is collected.