Relationships of health-related quality of life with subjective noise sensitivity in the subjects with normal hearing

Objective: Our aim was to look for the association of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) with subjective noise sensitivity (SNS) in the audiologically and perceptually normal hearing subjects since HRQoL was suggested as a tool during the intervention of the hearing impaired people. Methods: The audiological evaluation was first done in the subjects who were enrolled from the previous study in which Weinstein Noise Sensitivity Scale (WNSS) was adapted to Turkish. Then, the Short Form-36 (SF-36) scores were determined and the relationships of WNSS score with the SF-36 scores were analysed in respect to gender, age, audiological variables. Results: Of 210, 124 subjects (M:44; F:80) were taken to the study. WNSS score presented no gender difference and correlation with age and audiological variables. It was found that WNSS score was significantly correlated with emotional and mental domains of HRQoL in women and physical and social functioning in men. Role limitations due to physical health, mental health, role limitations due to emotional problems, social functioning, vitality and mental composite scores were significantly lower in the upper SNS subgroup. Conclusion: It was revealed that SNS was strongly associated with HRQoL in perceptionally and audiologically normal hearing males and females via different domains. Therefore, in case of using HRQoL in audiological care, our data suggest that SNS should be taken into account.