Tinnitus in 7-year-old children

The prevalence of tinnitus in children with normal hearing has been reported to be between 6% and 36% and much higher in children with hearing loss. The aim of the present study was to perform an epidemiological, cross-sectional study, on the prevalence of tinnitus in 7-year-old school children (n=964) and to statistically analyse the relation of tinnitus to gender, noise exposure, intratympanic pressure and hearing parameters. Tinnitus was reported by 12% of the children and in contrast to other reports, hearing parameters, did not correlate to the prevalence of tinnitus and no gender differences were found. Noise induced tinnitus was reported in 2.5% of the children. Conclusion: persistent tinnitus in children may have similar causes to that in adults.