Association of tinnitus and self-reported systemic arterial hypertension: a retrospective study

PURPOSE: To describe data on hearing loss, systemic arterial hypertension and tinnitus of individuals, and to verify the association between self-reported systemic arterial hypertension and tinnitus, as well as to correlate other variables present in the sample: hearing loss and tinnitus, age and tinnitus and age and systemic arterial hypertension. METHODS: Quantitative, descriptive and inferential, retrospective research with data collection from 473 medical records of adults and elderly people treated between 2008 and 2018. Selected were information on age, gender, result of pure tone audiometry, tinnitus, tinnitus type and frequency, presence of SAH and use of medication to control the disease. RESULTS: No association was found between systemic arterial hypertension and tinnitus or between hearing loss and tinnitus and between age and tinnitus, however, an association was observed between age and systemic arterial hypertension using the Chi - Square test. The most common type of tinnitus was wheezing and most individuals who reported feeling more than one type of tinnitus were hypertensive. CONCLUSION: The results found and the literature suggest that systemic arterial hypertension may be an additional factor or an aggravating factor of preexisting factors in the generation of tinnitus, but not the primary cause.