Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ASES INTERNATIONAL HEALTH, ENGINEERING AND SCIENCES CONGRESS, Ankara, Türkiye, 7 - 08 Mayıs 2022, ss.168
Abstract
It has been reported that tinnitus strongly affects the psychological and social profile negatively,
and reduces the quality of life. Since the effect of tinnitus on quality of life is highly variable
and multifactorial, tinninus should be considered as a social problem as well as a medical
problem. Although many studies have been conducted on the psychosocial effects of tinnitus
and reported that it affects sexual functions negatively in general, no study has been found that
directly examines its effect on sexual quality of life. Our research is the first study in this sense
and aims to examine the effect of subjective tinnitus on the quality of sexual life in individuals
with normal hearing. Individuals between the ages of 18-55 who applied to Ankara University
Medical Faculty İbni Sina Hospital Audiology, Balance and Speech Disorders Diagnosis and
Rehabilitation Unit for routine hearing test and tinnitus evaluation were included. 9 individuals
with subjective tinnitus with normal hearing constituted the study group, and 16 individuals
with normal hearing without tinnitus constituted the control group. Both groups were evaluated
with the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale and Sexual Life Quality Scale, which were arranged
separately for men and women. These data were compared using the Mann Whitney U test. The
tinnitus severity determined by the Tinnitus Disability Questionnaire. The Sexual Life Quality
Scale scores of the study group were lower than those of the control group (p<0.05). There was
no statistically significant difference between the Arizona Sexual Experiences Scale scores of
the study group and control group (p>0.05). No significant correlation was found between the
Tinnitus Disability Questionnaire and Sexual Life Quality Scale data (r=-0.582, p>0.05).
According to the findings obtained in our study, it was concluded that tinnitus severity did not
affect sexual functions according to the Arizona Sexual Experiences Scale, but affected the
sexual life quality according to the Sexual Life Quality Scale.
Keywords: Normal Hearing, Sexuality, Sexual Life Quality, Tinnitus