1. INTRODUCTION
Subjective tinnitus is the perception of sound in the absence of an acoustic source. It is a common condition in the population and is associated with variable severity and symptom response. Subjective measures are essential in assessing the severity and impacts of tinnitus, and in determining the effectiveness of intervention.1 The Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) was introduces by Meikle et al.,2 and differs from previous tinnitus questionnaires in terms of careful development, comprehensive coverage tinnitus complaints, interpretability of scores, and responsiveness to treatment-related change.3 Kam et al.4 translated the TFI into Chinese (TFI-CH) and adapted its use for tinnitus patients in Hong Kong. They found that the psychometric properties of the TFI-CH were similar to those of the original TFI in terms of reliability, construct validity, responsiveness and factorial structure However, the responsiveness of the THI-CH to changes in tinnitus severity after intervention remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the TFI-CH is suitable to detect changes in tinnitus severity after repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in chronic tinnitus patients from mainland China.