title: Prevalence of tinnitus complaints and probable association with hearing loss, diabetes mellitus and hypertension in elderly.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the prevalence of tinnitus and possible association with hearing loss, diabetes mellitus and hypertension in elderly.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study with individuals older than 60 years who underwent audiological evaluation (pure tone audiometry and history) and answered a comorbidity questionnaire. We evaluated 519 subjects of both genders with a median age of 69 years. Individuals who did not participate in the audiometric test were excluded, then totaling 498 subjects. We applied the appropriate statistical tests to analyze the tinnitus and associated factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of 42.77% of tinnitus was found, being 58.68% bilateral tinnitus and 41.31% unilateral tinnitus. There was a difference between tinnitus and hearing loss, but there was no difference between tinnitus and hypertension and between tinnitus and diabetes mellitus alone.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of tinnitus is significant in the elderly. There are differences between tinnitus and hearing loss, with association between the side affected by tinnitus and the side of hearing loss. Only the association of comorbidity of diabetes mellitus and hypertension is an independent risk factor for tinnitus.
authors.forename: Paula Carolina Dias
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Gibrin
authors.forename: Juliana Jandre
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Melo
authors.forename: Luciana Lozza de Moraes
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Marchiori
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*