Categorization of Tinnitus Severity for the Mandarin Tinnitus Questionnaire

The Tinnitus Questionnaire is commonly used to evaluate the psychological impact of tinnitus and has been translated into Mandarin. The original English version of the Tinnitus Questionnaire was translated into Mandarin (Mandarin Tinnitus Questionnaire [MTQ]). The MTQ included not the same items compared with original version. Thus, MTQ should have its own severity categorization.

The objective of this research was to develop a method to categorize tinnitus patients by clinical severity using scores from the MTQ.

A total of 192 participants with primary complaint of tinnitus were enrolled. Cross-tabulation was used to compare 2 categorization approaches of tinnitus severity. With the first approach, categories were assigned based purely on quartiles of MTQ scores. In the second approach, severity was determined based on ordinal logistic regression. The 2 approaches were verified by comparing the consistency with clinical judgment.

Categorization based on quartiles showed low consistency with clinical assessment (κ = 0.33), while categorization based on ordinal logistic regression showed good consistency with clinical assessment (κ = 0.86). Regression-based MTQ score cutoffs were <21 for no problem with tinnitus, 21 to 36 for mild tinnitus, 37 to 47 for moderate tinnitus, and >47 for severe tinnitus.

Tinnitus severity can be categorized accurately using ordinal logistic regression analysis of MTQ scores.