Psychometric Evaluation of the Tinnitus Severity Short Form Measure in Veterans and Civilians

Tinnitus is the perception of sound that cannot be attributed to an external source, which can be distressing. There are several measures of tinnitus distress available; however, these measures are difficult to use in practice. The Tinnitus Severity Short Form (TS-SF) was developed to be a brief, pragmatic measure. However, it is presently unclear whether the measure may be invariant across groups.

Participants (N = 277) completed the TS-SF. Confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance analyses were run in Mplus.

A confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated acceptable relative fit indices for a bifactor model. The TS-SF demonstrated measurement invariance at the configural, metric, scalar, and residual levels between veterans and civilians. Post hoc testing indicated that a vast majority of the variance of the bifactor model can be attributed to the substantive distress score, justifying unifactorial scoring.

This study provides evidence that the TS-SF is a useful, brief measure of tinnitus distress that may be used to connect individuals to appropriate treatments.