Assessment of Risk Factors for Tinnitus Development in Syrian Workers with Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

This study aims to investigate the factors associated with the development of tinnitus among Syrian workers suffering from noise-induced hearing loss. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 factory workers between 2022 and 2025. A detailed medical history was obtained, followed by pure-tone audiometry to assess hearing thresholds at the 4000 Hz frequency. The prevalence of tinnitus was 66.7%. The proportion of males was 89% in the tinnitus group and 91% in the non-tinnitus group (p = 0.879). The mean age was 47.3 years in the tinnitus group and 49.5 years in the non-tinnitus group (p = 0.416). Diabetes mellitus was present in 23% of the tinnitus group compared to 11% of those without tinnitus (p = 0.0021). Hypertension was found in 31% of the tinnitus group versus 19% in the non-tinnitus group (p = 0.0011). The mean hearing threshold at 4000 Hz was 81.25 dB in the tinnitus group and 74.19 dB in the non-tinnitus group (p = 0.0025). Our study found that noise-induced hearing loss is a significant contributor to the development of tinnitus. Additionally, greater hearing loss severity, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension were identified as risk factors for tinnitus among patients with noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss.