Quality of life measurement in chronic otitis media: Validation of international questionnairs and assessment of the response shift

Introduction Patients with chronic otitis media (COM) often have a long period of suffering, characterised by recurrent otorrhoea, hearing loss, pain and multiple surgeries. The health-related quality of life (HRQOL) plays an increasingly important role in disease assessment. Internationally, a large number of validated questionnairs are used in English. The Chronic Otitis Media Outcome Test (COMOT-15) and the Zurich chronic middle ear inventory (ZCMEI-21) are validated and available in German.

Methods HRQOL was determined in 83 patients with COM pre- and 6-12 months post-operatively after middle ear surgery with the COMOT-15 and the "Chronic Ear Survey" (CES), "Chronic Otitis Media Questionnaire" (COMQ-12) and "Hearing Handicap Inventory For Adults" (HHIA) translated into German. In addition patients were asked to complete all questionnaires post-operatively as they remembered the pre-operative situation.

Results In a first step, the questionnaires translated from English were validated. All these questionnaires showed a highly significant improvement (p<0.001) in HRQOL in pre-post comparison. Post-operative HRQOL correlated strongly with post-operative hearing outcome (r=0.5-0.8; p<0.001). Interestingly, the retrospective assessment of health-related quality of life showed a clear shift to more negative values.

Conclusion COM patients show an improvement in HRQOL after middle ear surgery. The internationally used questionnaires fulfil the quality criteria after translation. In general, the response shift should also be considered when evaluating the post-operative results.

Poster-PDF A-1882.PDF

Publication History

Article published online:
10 June 2020