{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,26]],"date-time":"2026-03-26T16:25:13Z","timestamp":1774542313736,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,6]],"date-time":"2023-03-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1678060800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000055","name":"National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institute of Health (NIH)","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R21DC017214"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R21DC017214"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000055","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Audiology Research"],"abstract":"<jats:p>(1) Objective: Social representations theory (SRT) is a body of theory within social psychology concerned with how individuals, groups, and communities collectively make sense of socially relevant or problematic issues, ideas, and practices. SRT has been increasingly sued in the area of health and disability. The current study examined the social representations of \u201ctinnitus\u201d and \u201chealth\u201d among individuals with tinnitus who are seeking online psychological interventions. (2) Materials\/Method: The data were gathered using a free association task about their \u201ctinnitus\u201d and \u201chealth\u201d from 399 individuals with tinnitus. The data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative analyses methods. (3) Results: The responses resulted in 39 and 30 categories respectively, for \u201ctinnitus\u201d and \u201chealth\u201d. The most commonly occurring categories for tinnitus included: descriptions of tinnitus (18%), annoying (13.5%), persistent (8%), and distracting (5%). The most commonly occurring categories for health included: content (12%), conditions (8%), active (7%), take control (6%), and overweight (5%). The responses to tinnitus had predominantly negative connotations (i.e., 76.9%) whereas a larger proportion of responses toward their health was related to positive connotations (i.e., 46.4%). These frequently occurring items were also dominant in similarities analysis. Prototypical analysis of tinnitus responses identified categories horrible and bothersome to be key items in the central zone. The categories in central zone of health responses included: content, active, healthy, grateful, and overweight. (4) Conclusions: Individuals with tinnitus have very negative view of their tinnitus impacting their psychological status. Tinnitus management should focus on reducing the negative associations toward their tinnitus and strengthen the positive aspects related to their general health.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/audiolres13020020","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,7]],"date-time":"2023-03-07T02:30:45Z","timestamp":1678156245000},"page":"207-220","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Social Representations of \u201cTinnitus\u201d and \u201cHealth\u201d among Individuals with Tinnitus Seeking Online Psychological Interventions"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1254-8407","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vinaya","family":"Manchaiah","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Otolaryngology\u2013Head and Neck Surgery, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO 80045, USA"},{"name":"UCHealth Hearing and Balance, University of Colorado Hospital, Aurora, CO 80045, USA"},{"name":"Virtual Hearing Lab, Collaborative Initiative between University of Colorado School of Medicine and University of Pretoria, Aurora, CO 80045, USA"},{"name":"Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa"},{"name":"Department of Speech and Hearing, Manipal College of Health Professions, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal 576104, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Srikanth","family":"Chundu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Vision and Hearing Sciences Research Group, School of Psychology and Sport Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pierre","family":"Ratinaud","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire d\u2019\u00c9tudes et de Recherches Appliqu\u00e9es en Sciences Sociales (LERASS), University of Toulouse, 31000 Toulouse, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gerhard","family":"Andersson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Link\u00f6ping University, 58183 Link\u00f6ping, Sweden"},{"name":"Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Link\u00f6ping University, 58183 Link\u00f6ping, Sweden"},{"name":"Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Psychiatry, Karolinska Institute, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9434-9160","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eldre W.","family":"Beukes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Virtual Hearing Lab, Collaborative Initiative between University of Colorado School of Medicine and University of Pretoria, Aurora, CO 80045, USA"},{"name":"Vision and Hearing Sciences Research Group, School of Psychology and Sport Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"711","DOI":"10.1016\/j.amjmed.2010.02.015","article-title":"Prevalence and characteristics of tinnitus among US adults","volume":"123","author":"Shargorodsky","year":"2010","journal-title":"Am. 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