Adaptation of the Arabic versions of the Hearing Handicap Inventory for adults and elderly with permanent sensorineural hearing loss

Abstract

Objective: To translate the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults (HHIA) and Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE) into Arabic while ensuring that the reliability and validity are the same as those of the original English versions.

Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional study.

Study sample: In total, 115 individuals with hearing impairment and 114 controls with normal hearing completed the Arabic versions of HHIA/HHIE. Each subject underwent a complete audiological evaluation before answering the questionnaires. The construct and discriminant validities were determined in addition to the reliability, which was investigated by calculating the internal and test–retest consistencies.

Results: Internal consistency between the total and subscale scores were excellent for the Arabic versions of HHIA and HHIE (Cronbach’s alpha: ∼0.90). With regard to the test–retest reproducibility, the Spearman’s correlation coefficient for consistency between total scores obtained at baseline and those obtained at 6 weeks was acceptable (r = 0.761, p < 0.0001). The total scores were statistically proportional to the degree of hearing loss. Moreover, the questionnaire successfully differentiated between individuals with hearing impairment and those with normal hearing.

Conclusions: Our findings clarified that the Arabic versions of HHIA and HHIE are acceptable tools for evaluating the psychological influences of hearing loss in Arabic populations.

Keywords:

• Hearing Handicap Inventory
• hearing loss
• test–retest reliability
• internal consistency
• discriminant validity
• construct validity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Jordan University of Science and Technology [20190016].