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.