Developing and Validating a Hearing-Loss Related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Adolescents

The aim of study was developing a valid hearing loss-related quality of life scale for hearing impaired adolescents. The first draft of the questionnaire, answering and scoring systems was produced based on literature review. The viewpoints of 14 experts were gathered to assess the questionnaire’s face and content validity. In order to assess clarity of items, construct validity and test-retest reliability, the questionnaire was completed by 12-18 year- old hearing impaired students of secondary and high schools with mainstreaming and those with exceptional settings in the year 2011 in Tehran city, The adolescents were chosen by stratified sampling and the sample sizes were 28, 255 and 117 respectively. Lawashe Method was used to calculate Content Validity Index. Construct validity was analyzed using factor analysis. The questionnaire was constructed in 3 domains and 38 items with a set of 3 to 5-answer choices for each question. The total score of the questionnaire and scores of each domain were developed on a 0-100 scale in which the higher scores indicated better QOL. The face validity and content validity (CVI=0.79) was confirmed satisfactory. Test-retest correlation of scores was 0.85 for the total score and 0.81, 0.68, 0.78 for the physical, emotional and social domains, respectively. The Adolescents' Hearing Loss-Related Quality Of Life Questionnaire has been shown to be a valid and reliable tool and can be used for assessing consequences of hearing impairment, and the effects of rehabilitation programs on quality of life of Iranian adolescents with hearing loss.