Development and Standardization of Questionnaire to Assess the Outcome in Adult Hearing Aid Users

Abstract

Objective: The present study was aimed to develop a questionnaire and to assess outcome measures as well as standardize it on adult hearing aid users. Design: The questionnaire consists of 57 questions with 4 main domains and 14 subscales with 5 point ratings mainly to measure outcomes such as benefit, usage, satisfaction and reduction in handicap and quality of life before treatment and after treatment with the hearing aids. Method: To develop and standardize this questionnaire the study was carried out in four main phases. In the development phase literature review and focused group interviews were considered for the selection of questions/items and to categorize them into different domains. In the second phase translation of English questionnaire to Kannada was carried out, the selected items were subjected to face and content validity. In the third phase of the research factor analysis and administration of the questionnaire was done on 120 hearing aid users. In the final phase of the study reliability and concurrent validity of the questionnaire was carried out. Results: Overall results revealed that the hearing aid users were benefited and satisfied with their amplification devices as well as there was reduction in their handicap, their quality of life had improved with the use hearing aids. There was statistically significant difference noted for both the unaided and aided conditions in hearing aid users across different domains and their subscales. Factor analysis revealed a 14 factor solution. Reliability was excellent the alpha values ranged from 0.7 to 0.9 which indicates high internal consistency. The questionnaire also has acceptable concurrent validity. Relation between demographic factors and hearing aid use did not show statistical significance difference. Conclusion: The questionnaire is suitable for quantifying subjective hearing aid outcomes in both research and clinical settings with psychometric properties.