psychometric properties of the persian version of the tinnitus acceptance questionnaire and its correlation with psychoacoustic parameters in patients with chronic subjective tinnitus

Background and aim: acceptance of tinnitus may influence the perceived intensity and the distress it causes. the tinnitus acceptance questionnaire (taq) is a useful tool for assessing tinnitus acceptance. this study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the persian version of the taq (p-taq) and determine the correlation of its scores with psychoacoustic measures in patients with chronic tinnitus. methods: after translation and confirming face validity, 85 patients with chronic tinnitus completed the p-taq, along with the persian versions of the hospital anxiety and depression scale (hads) and tinnitus handicap inventory (thi). to determine the reliability, the p-taq was completed by 30 patients after two weeks. psychoacoustic parameters including pitch matching, loudness matching, and minimum masking level (mml) were measured for all patients. results: the p-taq had high face validity. the internal consistency was confirmed using cronbach’s alpha (α=0.92). the interclass correlation coefficient (0.994) confirmed reliability. a strong negative correlation was found between the total p-taq score and total thi score (p<0.001, r=–0.788), and the scores of the hads subscales of anxiety (p<0.001, r=–0.623) and depression (p<0.001, r=–0.728). the total p-taq score showed a weak negative correlation with tinnitus loudness (p=0.003, r=–0.322) and pta of both ears (r=–0.223, p=0.040). there was no significant correlation between the total p-taq score and the factors of age, tinnitus duration, tinnitus pitch, or mml. conclusion: the p-taq has excellent validity and reliability. therefore, it can be used to assess tinnitus acceptance among persian-speaking patients with chronic tinnitus.