Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Chinese tinnitus functional index

Abstract

Objectives: To establish the reliability, validity and responsiveness of the Chinese version of the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI-CH) in measuring tinnitus severity in Hong Kong Chinese population. Design: This is a cross-sectional psychometric validation study. Study sample: Subjects were 124 adult Chinese who attended the audiology clinics in a hospital setting for tinnitus treatment. Results: The TFI-CH showed good internal consistency reliability (α = 0.94) and test–retest reliability (ICC = 0.84). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the TFI-CH has eight factors which are exactly the same as the original version. The TFI-CH has good convergent and divergent validity as supported by the strong correlation of the overall scale with other tinnitus-related distress measures (r = 0.86, p < 0.01) and weaker correlation with the general health status measures. Moderate to strong effect sizes obtained 3 months after initial visit indicated that the TFI-CH is responsive in detecting change in tinnitus suffering. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate that the TFI-CH is a reliable and valid measure which should be useful in both clinical and research settings for intake assessment and for measuring treatment-related changes in tinnitus.

Key Words:

• Tinnitus
• psychometric properties
• reliability
• validity
• Chinese

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

This study was supported by the Health and Medical Research Fund, Food and Health Bureau, Hong Kong SAR Government (grant number 11120221). The work described in this paper was partially supported by the Research Support Scheme 2016/2017 of the Department of Special Education and Counselling at the Education University of Hong Kong.