Preliminary analysis of characteristics of visitors to the“tinnitus-light”website in one year

HAN Zhao; ZHAO Chunli; ZHANG Jianning

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1672-2922.2016.06.028

Abstract：Objective To analyze one year visitors data on the“www.tinnitus-light.org”website to understand charac-teristics of visitors in an attempt to find more appropriate treatment modalities for tinnitus. Methods Questionnaires an-swers and comments by visitors from June 2014 to June 2015 were collected and statistically analyzed. Results A total of 1, 749 visitors, among about ten thousand peoples who visited the website during the period, completed the questionnaires and charts and were included in the study. Of these visitors, 1,558 reported tinnitus, 137 were physicians and 54 provided no clear identification. One thousand and two hundred visitors were male, 530 were female (male to female ratio roughly=2:1 and different than that seen in a typical ENT clinic, P<0.001), while 19 did not provide their gender. The average age of the 1,558 tinnitus patients was 35.13±6.5 years, with 1,386 (79.5%) falling in the interval between 22 and 45 years. The highest tinnitus incidence rates fell in the 31 years (n=276) and 30 years (n=315) age groups, accounting for 37.93%. The mean age of the 137 physicians was 36.79±18.5 years. Visitors were mostly from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai and 99.58%of them expressed satisfaction to the information on the website. Conclusion The website appears to meet the needs of patients with tinnitus and some physicians. Compared with tinnitus patients seen in the clinic, the age of patient visitors to the website is younger and have a higher male percentage. To make best use of such websites, other supplementary modes of interaction may be needed to meet the needs of various visitor demographics.