Management of adult patients with tinnitus: Preparedness, perspectives and practices of audiologists.
Firdaus Dawood, Nasim B Khan, Vedika Bagwandin
PMID 31793315WHAT IT FOUND
42% of South African audiologists and speech therapists who treat tinnitus disagreed they were sufficiently prepared, and 12.3% had specialist training in assessment. 59.5% did not use guidelines or policies for assessment.
Key findings
0142% of respondents disagreed that they were sufficiently prepared for overall tinnitus management, and 12.3% had undertaken specialist training to assess tinnitus.
0248.1% did not follow standard procedures and 59.5% did not use guidelines or policies when assessing adult patients with tinnitus.
03Counselling was the most commonly reported intervention, while 53% of participants who described challenges reported limited ability to assess or provide intervention.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 243 of 1822 contacted professionals participated, and nine incomplete questionnaires were excluded, so the views may not represent all audiologists or speech therapists and audiologists in South Africa. The study reports self-perceived preparedness, perspectives and practices, not patient outcomes, so it cannot show whether tinnitus management helps patients. The paper states the sample size is small and may lack generalisability. The survey was conducted in South Africa, so language, training and resource issues may not apply in other settings.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that tinnitus management is ineffective or unsafe. This paper reports clinicians' self-reported preparedness, perspectives and practices, not patient outcomes or treatment effects.