Glasgow Benefit Inventory in Cochlear Implantation: A Reliable Though Ancillary Quality of Life Metric.

OBJECTIVE

The Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI) is a health-related quality of life instrument used to detect changes in health status following otolaryngologic interventions. Despite its use in cochlear implant literature, assessment of utility, reliability, and validity of GBI in an adult cochlear implants (CI) patient population has yet to be performed.

STUDY DESIGN

Retrospective case series.

SETTING

Academic, tertiary referral center.

PATIENTS

Postlingually deafened, adult CI patients with at least 1 year of device use.

INTERVENTIONS

Five hundred fifty-two patients were administered GBI questionnaires at least 1 year following CI activation during follow-up visits.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

GBI total and subscale scoring were compared to either the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults or Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly. Moreover, a factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha were performed to determine GBI validity and internal reliability, respectively.

RESULTS

The average overall GBI score was 38.6 ± 21.7. This was weakly correlated to the reduction in Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults/Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (τb = 0.282, p < 0.05). High factor loading with minimal cross-loading was noted on a three-factor solution, which emulated the original GBI development. Internal reliability was acceptable for the general benefit (α = 0.913) and social support subclasses (α = 0.706), whereas physical health's was low (α = 0.643).

CONCLUSIONS

Although GBI possesses adequate convergent and discriminant validity with acceptable reliability, its routine use to capture CI-specific health-related changes should not supersede validated CI-specific QoL instruments.