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Updated: May 27, 2026

Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses
Published on: January 23, 2017
Tinnitus and hearing in 7-year-old children
Jolanta Juul1, Marie-Louise Barrenäs, Kajsa-Mia Holgers
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Section for Audiology, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden. jolanta.juul@vgregion.se
Background:
Tinnitus occurs with or without prior noise exposure (noise-induced tinnitus (NIT) and spontaneous tinnitus (ST)), and is considered a symptom related to permanent hearing impairment (HI) or temporary hearing threshold shift (TTS).
Objective:
To carry out a cross-sectional interview study on TTS, ST and NIT during a standard audiometric screening of 756 7-year-old children in Gothenburg.
Results:
41% out of 756 children reported either NIT or ST on several occasions, 17% reported recurrent TTS and 7% failed the audiometry screening. The probability of ST was 27% for children with no HI or TTS (OR=1.23 (95% CI 1.12 to 1.34)) but 63% (OR=1.16 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.33)) if exhibiting both HI and TTS.
Conclusion:
This study confirms an increased occurrence of spontaneous tinnitus in children with TTS or HI and in children with both TTS and HI, in particular, but also in children with normal hearing. Possibly, tinnitus in young children correlates with stress as in adolescents and adults.
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