An alternative method of treating tinnitus: physical exercise to enhance subjective well-being

Background Despite proven positive effects on mental, physical and social health, physical exercise programs are currently rarely used in the treatment of tinnitus. Objectives Does a physical exercise program have positive effects on the self-assessed stress caused by tinnitus, the global well-being and the subjective volume level in tinnitus patients? Materials and methods A pre-post design with intervention and control group (sports program vs. no intervention) was used. A shortened version of the Tinnitus Questionnaire (measurement of self-assessed stress), the face scale (measurement of global well-being) and a self-constructed scale to ascertain the subjective volume level were used as measurement instruments. Results A total of 64 subjects were included in the current study (32 each in the intervention and control group). Significant group differences resulted regarding the changes in self-assessed stress (2.84 +/- 1.11 points; F = 2.64; p = 0.010) and subjective volume level (2.56 +/- 0.68 points; F = 3.79; p = 0.000). The intervention group showed higher decreases compared to the control group. There were no significant group differences regarding change in global well-being (-0.53 +/- 0.38 points; F = -1.39; p = 0.690). Conclusions Sport/physical exercise has several positive effects on the self-assessed symptoms of tinnitus and should therefore be used more often in therapy.