French adaptation and validation of the Chronic Otitis Media Questionnaire-12 (COMQ-12)

Abstract

Objective

Chronic otitis media (COM) can seriously impact quality of life (QOL). Disease-specific questionnaires are essential for an accurate assessment of this impact. There is no questionnaire available for French-speaking patients with COM. This study aims to adapt and validate the French version of the COMQ-12 questionnaire.

Design

This is a controlled, prospective study, conducted between May 2020 and December 2021. Translation was performed using a forward-backward technique, and statistical validation was performed with a COM patients and a controls adult cohorts.

Study sample

100 patients (mean age 48 ± 16), and 50 controls (mean age 41 ± 16; p = 0.02) completed the test.

Results

Internal consistency, assessed by Cronbach’s alpha, was 0.870 for the cases group. The mean COMQ-12 total score was 23.92 ± 11.3 for cases versus 3.70 ± 6.15 for controls (p < 0.0001). Individual items all had high discriminatory performances. The three items concerning ear discharge (Q1, Q2, Q9) had weaker correlation with the other items and the global score, but did not have a negative impact on internal consistency.

Conclusion

The French version of the COMQ-12 is a short and easy-to-use test, with robust statistical properties, for assessing QOL in patients with COM.

Keywords:

• Cross-cultural comparison
• tympanic membrane
• surveys and questionnaires
• otitis media
• cholesteatoma
• outcome assessment
• health care
• hearing loss
• tinnitus
• vertigo

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. There was no funding for this study

Database availability statement

https://doi.org/10.3886/E166504V1