Association between nasal septal deviation and tinnitus: Insights from a 9-year nationwide cohort study

Tinnitus is a condition where sound is perceived in the ear or head when no external sound stimulation is present. To date, no study has explored the correlation between nasal septal deviation (SD) and tinnitus using large-scale real-world data. This study hypothesized a potential relationship between tinnitus and SD, which we investigated using a 9-year large-scale cohort study. Nationwide cohort observational study. The SD group was selected from 1 million individuals randomly extracted from the National Health Insurance Service database. The non-SD group was obtained through propensity score matching considering several variables. The primary endpoint was tinnitus diagnosis. The study (SD) group included 10,790 individuals, and the non-SD group (control group) included 21,580 individuals. The overall hazard ratio (HR) for tinnitus in the SD group was 1.74 (95% CI: 1.62–1.89). In the subgroup analysis, the HR was 0.73 (95% CI: 0.68–0.79) for tinnitus in the male group, 1.12 (95% CI: 1.04–1.21) in the group with high economic status, 0.81 (95% CI: 0.75–0.89) in the group living in metropolitan areas, and 0.45 (95% CI: 0.42–0.49) in the younger age group (<50 years). In the SD group, the HR for tinnitus after septoplasty significantly decreased to 0.75 (95% CI: 0.63–0.90). From long-term follow-up, the prevalence of tinnitus was 1.74 times higher in the SD group compared with the control group. This phenomenon significantly decreased after septoplasty.