Pilot Study Evaluates Ecological Momentary Assessment of Tinnitus

ATA Scientific Advisory Committee member Jim Henry's study on a new way to view and evaluate the daily effects of chronic tinnitus, via personal digital assistant, was recently published.

The study was conducted in three phases: (1) design and development of an ecological momentary assessment (known as EMA) methodology that could be used to assess effects of tinnitus; (2) refinement of the methodology through the use of two focus groups; and (3) field-test the methodology with individuals who experienced bothersome tinnitus.

For Phase 3, each of the 24 participants wore, throughout their waking hours for 2 weeks, a personal digital assistant that produced alerts four times a day. The alerts prompted participants to respond to 19 questions, including 9 relating to situational and mood factors and 10 comprising the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory-Screening version (THI-S).

Participants responded to the alerts with a 90% compliance rate, providing a total of 1210 completed surveys.

This innovative methodological approach has shown great promise in the study of chronic health problems and could be a new way to more accurately monitor people's progress while undergoing treatment for tinnitus.

Read the abstract here