Development of a new outcomes instrument for conductive hearing loss.

OBJECTIVE

The objective was to design and validate a disease-specific outcomes instrument for use in conductive hearing loss (CHL).

STUDY DESIGN

The study was a retrospective survey of 47 patients recently treated for CHL with either a hearing aid or surgery. Patients were tested with the newly designed instrument (the Hearing Satisfaction Scale [HSS]), previously validated hearing-specific instruments, and a generic quality-of-life instrument.

SETTING

The study was performed in an academic tertiary referral center.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

These included test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, content validity, criterion validity, and construct validity of the HSS.

RESULTS

Test-retest reliability (r = 0.72, p < 0.001) and internal consistency reliability were adequate (Cronbach's alpha was 0.83 and 0.74 for the two subscales of the HSS). Criterion validity for individual items was adequate (r = 0.45, p = 0.02) using audiometric data as the criterion standard. Construct validity was also high using results from other instruments; both convergent and divergent validity of the HSS was demonstrated. In addition, the HSS demonstrated the ability to differentially discriminate between subgroups when grouped by level of hearing loss.

CONCLUSIONS

The HSS is a valid and reliable instrument for use in outcomes research on conductive hearing loss.