Tinnitus Screener: Short-Term Test-Retest Reliability

Purpose: The Tinnitus Screener was introduced in 2015 as a four-item algorith-mic instrument to assess the temporal characteristics of a person's reported tin-nitus. The Tinnitus Screener was then revised as a six-item version to include a new temporal category and to capture tinnitus duration (acute < 6 months vs. chronic >= 6 months). When contrasted with audiologist assessment, the four-item Tinnitus Screener was determined to be highly valid, but the short-term reliability of either version remained unknown. The present analysis focused on determining the test-retest reliability of the six-item Tinnitus Screener. Addition-ally, we sought to determine whether reliability differed by respondent age, sex, military status, and hearing loss. Method: The Tinnitus Screener was administered to 190 military Service mem-bers and 250 military Veterans at two time points separated by 7-31 days. Our analysis focused on test-retest reliability of responses as measured by the kappa coefficient, overall and within subsamples. Percent agreement of tinnitus categori-zation (temporal categories) and classification (positive/negative) between the two time points was also evaluated. Results: Constant or intermittent tinnitus was found in 31% of Service mem-bers and 53% of Veterans. Overall, kappa reliability coefficients were high, near .80, indicating substantial reliability. The majority (96%) of reliability coefficients for the Tinnitus Screener within subsamples were similarly high, ranging from .68 to .88. Conclusions: The updated version of the Tinnitus Screener is shown to be a reliable instrument. The Tinnitus Screener is recommended to inform clinical decision making by determining the temporal characteristics of tinnitus.