Tinnitus Is Marginally Associated with Body Mass Index, Heart Rate and Arterial Blood Pressure: Results from a Large Clinical Sample

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to explore whether body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (RR syst), diastolic blood pressure (RR diast) or heart rate (HR) are associated with tinnitus status and/or severity. Methods: To that end, we evaluated the influence of tinnitus status and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) score on BMI, RR syst, RR diast and HR by comparing data from a large sample of patients presenting to a specialized tertiary referral clinic (N = 1066) with data from a population-based control group (N = 9885) by means of linear models. Results: Tinnitus patients had a significantly lower BMI and higher RR syst, RR diast and HR than non-tinnitus patients; however, the contribution of the case–control status to R2 was very small (0.1%, 0.7%, 1.4% and 0.4%, respectively). BMI had little predictive power for the THI score (higher BMI scores were related to higher THI scores; R2 = 0.5%) and neither RR syst, RR diast, nor HR showed a statistically significant association with THI. Discussion: Our findings suggest that HR, RR and BMI are at most marginally associated with tinnitus status and severity.