Cross-cultural adaption and validation of the Chronic Otitis Media Questionnaire 12 (COMQ-12) in the Italian language

• Published in: European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology 2019-11, Vol.276 (11), p.3027-3033
• Main Authors: Quaranta, Nicola, De Robertis, Valentina, Milella, Claudia, Pontrelli, Marco, Greco, Antonio, Fiorella, Maria Luisa, Pontillo, Vito, de Vincentiis, Marco, Phillips, Jonathan S., Ralli, Massimo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Child; Chronic Disease; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Culturally Competent Care; Female; Head and Neck Surgery; Humans; Italy; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Neurosurgery; Otitis Media - diagnosis; Otitis Media - physiopathology; Otitis Media - psychology; Otology; Otorhinolaryngology; Quality of Life - psychology; Reproducibility of Results; Severity of Illness Index; Translations; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0937-4477; 1434-4726
• DOI: 10.1007/s00405-019-05591-6

Purpose The evaluation of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in patients with chronic otitis media COM has gained attention over the past years and several questionnaires have been developed to evaluate it in affected patients. The Chronic Otitis Media Questionnaire 12 (COMQ-12) is a widely used disease-specific tool that evaluates the severity of symptoms, the specific impact on work and lifestyle, the effects on the health service, and general impact of the disease in patients with COM. The COMQ-12 questionnaire has been translated and validated into different languages; however, an Italian version is not yet available. The aim of this original study was to translate the COMQ-12 questionnaire into the Italian language and validate this new Italian language version in Italian-speaking patients with COM. Methods The COMQ-12 was translated into Italian (COMQ-12-It) following international guidelines. Validation was performed comparing and correlating COMQ-12-It with (1) a question that addresses HRQoL, and (2) the results of a generic questionnaire assessing HRQoL, namely the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire. Results Forty-eight patients with COM were included in the study. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.80 indicating a high reliability. There was a strong positive correlation between the question that directly addressed HRQoL and total score (correlation coefficient = 0.62), while the regression analysis between total score of COMQ-12-It and EQ-5D-5L showed a positive relation but only a weak positive correlation (correlation coefficient 0.36). Conclusions Our study showed evidence that the Italian version of the COMQ-12 questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool to evaluate HRQoL in Italian-speaking patients with COM.