State mental and impact of the tinnitus in the elderly

Purpose to analyze the performance of the elderly people on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE); to verify the results of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI); to investigate the interference of the variables gender, schooling and tinnitus on the MMSE and THI scores; to verify possible relations with self-reported mental state of psychoacoustic characteristics and emotional domain of THI. Methods clinical descriptive, exploratory qualitative and quantitative research. It was submitted to the MMSE and THI, 108 volunteers, male and female, aged ranged 60 to 80 years referred from Coordenadoria de Atenção Básica of Itabaiana – SE. The statistical analysis based on sample distribution and Spearman´s correlation with 0,05%. Results the mean age was 65.63 years. The MMSE results were grouped into four levels of education: no schooling (37.0%), ≥ 1 to ≤ 8 years (55.6%), ≥ 9 to ≤ 11 years (4.6%) and ≥ 12 years (2.8%), the mean MMSE was 21.7 points. It was observed that 49.1% scored below the pattern, while 50.9% presented equals or exceeds the parameter used. On THI, we found that 59.3% presented tinnitus. It was observed that tinnitus interferes with the quality of life on 89.10% of the population. Conclusion the majority of the elderly people presented abnormal MMSE. It was verify no significant association between gender, schooling and MMSE score and THI and the majority of the participants in this study reported impaired quality of life associated with tinnitus. No relation between abuse of psychoacoustic characteristics of tinnitus and results displayed by the MMSE, however, the data showed that the majority of the population tested complained of tinnitus.