Psychometric Evaluation of the Tinnitus Severity Short Form Measure in Veterans and Civilians

Tinnitus is the perception of sound that cannot be attributed to an external source, which can be distressing. Although there are several existing measures of tinnitus distress, these measures are long and difficult to score. The Tinnitus Severity Short Form (TS-SF) was developed to be a brief, pragmatic measure of tinnitus distress. Further confirming the factor structure of this measure and testing for invariance in important populations, such as veterans and civilians, will support the use of this measure in practice. Participants (N = 277) completed the TS-SF. A subset of participants (n = 129) were veterans. A confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated acceptable relative fit indices for a bifactor model. The TS-SF demonstrated measurement invariance at the configural, metric, scalar, and residual levels. This study provides evidence that the TS-SF is a useful, brief measure of tinnitus distress that may be used to connect individuals to appropriate treatments.