Tinnitus Profiling in an Albanian Population (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Characteristics of tinnitus, the perception of sound in the absence of an external acoustic stimulus, can vary from one individual to another. This heterogeneity has been blamed for the lack of success in finding a cure. To our knowledge, no previous study on tinnitus in Albania has been published, although some studies in eastern Europe are available. A study investigating the characteristics of tinnitus in this region would be important, providing the basis for further research on tinnitus in Albania and contributing to a wider understanding of tinnitus heterogeneity across different geographic locations. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to develop an Albania translation of a standardized questionnaire for tinnitus research (the European School for Interdisciplinary Tinnitus Research-Screening Questionnaire - ESIT-SQ) and use it to investigate characteristics of tinnitus in the Albanian population. METHODS Three translators were recruited to create the Albanian ESIT-SQ translation following good practice guidelines for translating questionnaires. This questionnaire was subsequently used to collect data from people attending otolaryngology clinics in Albania. RESULTS Self-report data from 107 people with varying degrees of tinnitus severity were collected using the Albanian ESIT-SQ. Using a Random Forest approach, we found that self-reported hearing difficulty, tinnitus duration, tinnitus pitch, and temporal manifestation of tinnitus were predictive of tinnitus symptom severity (cross-validated accuracy of 0.64, confidence Interval 0.54-0.73). CONCLUSIONS Overall, our study in an Albanian sample demonstrated that the ESIT-SQ can be used to investigate phenotypical characteristics and subgroup distinctions.