The European Tinnitus Survey: a Study on Tinnitus Prevalence in 12 European Countries

A European cross-sectional study was conducted with the aims of: i) examining inter-country differences in prevalence of tinnitus by comparing prevalence estimates in countries with relatively low versus high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and comparing prevalence estimates in countries within different European regions (i.e., Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Europe); ii) understanding the effect of sex, age, socio-economic variables, body mass index (BMI), and marital status on overall prevalence of tinnitus; iii) assessing the effect of hearing difficulty on tinnitus prevalence; and iv) exploring the effect of tinnitus severity on use of healthcare resource for tinnitus Overall, approximately 12,000 individuals aged 18 years or over are enrolled in 12 different European countries (BG, DE, ES, FR, GR, IE, IT, LV, PL, PT, RO, UK). Survey sample from each country were representative of the country-specific population in terms of sex, age, and socio-economic characteristics.