Clinical Benefit of Hearing Aid Tinnitus Feature on Tinnitus-Related Annoyance in Tinnitus Patients in Belgium

Tinnitus, the perception of sound without an external source, affects around 15% of the global adult population (Jarach et al., 2022). For many, tinnitus is a mild annoyance, but a significant subset experiences severe distress, leading to reduced quality of life and increased healthcare burden. Hearing loss is a major risk factor for tinnitus (Biswas et al., 2023), and clinical guidelines recommend hearing aids as a therapeutic option (Langguth et al., 2023). In addition to amplification through hearing aids, sound therapy has long been used to help manage tinnitus (Sereda & Hoare, 2024).

A recent randomized controlled trial has demonstrated the clinical efficacy of Sonova hearing aids with integrated noise generator (further referred to as "Tinnitus-feature") in reducing tinnitus-related distress. However, the evidence is limited for newer generations of hearing aids and for individuals with severe to profound hearing loss. This study aims to address these gaps by evaluating the clinical benefit of the noise generator feature in newer generations of Sonova hearing aids for adults with tinnitus and hearing loss and in patients with severe to profound hearing loss during routine clinical practice.