Hyperacusis and noise sensitivity: Empirical evidence for two distinct but overlapping constructs

Hyperacusis is an excessive, sometimes painful response to sounds of moderate volume. In the past 25 years, attempts have been made to assess it via questionnaires in addition to audiological measures. In the present study, two recently developed self-report questionnaires [Aazh, et al., 2022, J Am Acad Audiol 33(5), 248-258] designed to assess the presence and severity of hyperacusis were investigated in an online survey, namely the 8-item Hyperacusis Impact Questionnaire (HIQ), and the 5-item Sound Sensitivity Symptoms Questionnaire (SSSQ). The non-clinical sample, stratified by age and sex, consisted of N = 213 participants from Germany and Austria of whom N = 187 participated in a retest. As a result, the German-language versions of both questionnaires closely replicated the psychometric properties (distributions, factor structure, and internal consistency) of the original. Compared to the normally distributed scores obtained in the same sample with Weinstein's noise sensitivity questionnaire, the total-score distributions of the hyperacusis questionnaires were skewed, with a fifth (HIQ) to a third (SSSQ) of the participants showing no (or hardly any) hyperacusis symptoms. Both consequences of hyperacusis (HIQ: Spearman's ρ = .57) and the severity of symptoms (SSSQ: ρ = .42) correlated moderately with noise sensitivity. The apparent differences in total-score distributions, in temporal stability, and in the correlations with noise annoyance further suggest that hyperacusis and noise sensitivity are distinct, though partially overlapping constructs that may be distinguished at the conceptual, measurement, and empirical level.