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

Purpose: Tinnitus is the perception of sound that cannot be attributed to an external source, which can be distressing. There are several measures of tinnitus distress available; however, these measures are difficult to use in practice. The Tinnitus Severity Short Form (TS-SF) was developed to be a brief, pragmatic measure. However, it is presently unclear whether the measure may be invariant across groups. Method: Participants ( N = 277) completed the TS-SF. Confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance analyses were run in Mplus. Results: 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 between veterans and civilians. Post hoc testing indicated that a vast majority of the variance of the bifactor model can be attributed to the substantive distress score, justifying unifactorial scoring. Conclusion: 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.