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DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1728507
Validation of international measuring instruments in German to determine the disease-specific quality of life in patients with chronic otitis media
Introduction The outcome of middle ear surgery in patients with chronic otitis media (COM) has so far been assessed primarily by audiometric parameters. For years, disease-specific quality of life (HRQoL) has played an increasingly important role in disease assessment. Internationally, a large number of validated measuring instruments are already used to assess HRQoL in patients with COM. The“Chronic Otitis Media Outcome Test” (COMOT-15) and the “Zurich chronic middle ear inventory” (ZCMEI-21) are the only validated measuring instruments available in.
Methods HRQoL was determined in 79 patients with COM before and 6-12 months after middle ear surgery using COMOT-15, “Chronic Ear Survey” (CES), Chronic Otitis Media Questionnaire” (COMQ-12) and the “Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults” (HHIA). In addition, a retrospective assessment of HRQoL in the preoperative setting was performed by completing all questionnaires again at the end of the study.
Results First, all the German translations of the English measuring instruments were validated. All measuring instruments used showed a highly significant improvement (p < 0.001) of HRQoL in the pre- and postoperative comparison. Postoperative HRQoL correlated poorly to moderately with postoperative hearing outcome (r=0.10-0.34). Interestingly, the retrospective assessment of HRQoL showed a clear shift towards better values. This response shift was only clinically relevant in a subscore of COMOT-15 (effect strength 0.59).
Conclusion Patients with COM demonstrated an improvement in HRQoL after middle ear surgery. The German translations of the internationally used measuring instruments meet the required quality criteria. When measuring HRQoL in German, the validated versions of CES, COMQ-12 and HHIA should be used in the future in order to compare results with international studies.
Poster-PDF A-1686.pdf
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Conflict of interest
Der Erstautor gibt keinen Interessenskonflikt an.
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Publication History
Article published online:
13 May 2021
© 2021. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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