Hearing Aids for Tinnitus with Hearing Loss (HUSH)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Feasibility of conducting a multi-centre randomised controlled trial to assess effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of digital hearing aids in patients with tinnitus and hearing loss
IRAS ID
246285
Contact name
Magdalena Sereda
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 0 days
Research summary
In the UK, approximately one in ten people experience tinnitus, which is hearing a sound (like a buzzing, ringing or whooshing) without any external source. The sound may be in one or both ears, or in the head.
The most common help people get for tinnitus is being given advice about tinnitus and taught strategies to live better with tinnitus. Some patients also have counselling, if needed. We call this ‘standard care’, because it is the treatment that everyone gets in clinics in the UK because we know it can help.
If someone has a hearing loss as well as tinnitus, some audiologists might give a hearing aid in addition to standard care to see if it helps the tinnitus. They think the hearing aid could make the sounds people do want to hear louder, making the tinnitus sound quieter over time. However, we do not know if hearing aids do help in this way.
A large trial is needed to find out if giving hearing aids in addition to ‘standard care’ would help improve tinnitus. Before running this large trial we need to check that there are enough patients and audiologists interested in taking part. This check is called a ‘feasibility study’ and is what we are doing here.
We will need about 100 patients to take part in the study. During their first appointment for tinnitus with an audiologist, participants will answer questions about their tinnitus and be randomly assigned to have standard care, or standard care and be fitted with a hearing aid. After 12 weeks participants will be sent a questionnaire in the mail to see how their tinnitus is. Some participants will also be asked to take part in an optional interview to share their experiences of having tinnitus and being in the trial.REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/WM/0153
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jul 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion