Supplementary Material for: What people with tinnitus want. A survey of desired tinnitus digital therapy features.

Background: Tinnitus is the perception of sound when no sound is present. Due to its heterogenous nature, tinnitus can impact people differently. Tinnitus disorder occurs when the perception of tinnitus affects quality of life. Personalized digital mHealth therapy approaches to tinnitus treatment have been proposed to address the heterogeneity of tinnitus. To build self-efficacy in tinnitus management there should be alignment between therapeutic objectives and the needs of end users. This survey was undertaken to learn the desirable features a digital therapy should have from the perspective of people with tinnitus. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of 986 people on a tinnitus research list was undertaken asking questions about their experience of tinnitus and desirable features in a digital tinnitus therapy. Results: The highest rated problems with tinnitus where “loss of peace and quiet” and “sound intrusiveness” (Median (Mdn) 4/5). The most common problems that participants wanted help with were learning about treatments and management, hearing, tinnitus elimination, sleep and reduction in tinnitus. Participants rated sound-based brain-training games (training to focus away from tinnitus) as the top feature they wanted in digital therapy (Mdn 5/5, extremely important). Mann Whitney-U tests identified differences in problems and solutions when variables were grouped according to gender (female/male), self-reported hearing loss (yes/no), country of residence (New Zealand (NZ), non-NZ) and app use (yes/no). Females and males rated tinnitus problems differently, and females tended to rate solutions as more valuable than males. Conclusions: A survey of many people with tinnitus identified common problems and preferred solutions. Although a high percentage of responders wanted tinnitus eliminated, a large number recognized the desirability of management through sound-based and psychological approaches. This information can assist clinicians and researchers developing therapies.