Translation and Validation of Chronic Otitis Media Benefit Inventory (COMBI) in Turkish Language

Özet

Objective: The aim of this study was to translate theChronic Otitis Media Benefit Inventory (COMBI)into Turkish and evaluate the questionnaire’s reliability in assessing benefit outcomes in patients after earsurgery.Methods: A total of 30 patients with chronic otitismedia who underwent ear surgery were asked to fillout the translated Turkish version of the COMBIquestionnaire six months after their surgery twice, 10days apart. The patients were divided into two groupsin two different ways based on surgical and audiological outcomes. These were surgical success (SS),surgical failure (SF), audiological success (AS), audiological failure (AF) groups. Student's -t test was performed to show the differences in the COMBI scoresof the groups. Cronbach’s alpha value was calculatedto test internal consistency, Pearson’s correlation coefficient was measured to demonstrate test-retest reliability and factor analysis was run.Results: The average score of the SS group was 51.08and significantly higher than the score of the SF group(42.40) (p=0.012). There was, however, no statisticallysignificant difference between the average scores of theAS and the AF groups (p=0.330). A Cronbach’s alphavalue of 0.862 was found. Pearson’s r value was calculated 0.810. Factor analysis showed that a three-factorsolution explained the 70.2% of the variance.Conclusion: The Turkish version of the COMBI is avalid test with high test-retest reliability. It should beused with objective assessment tools for better understanding how patients benefit from the surgery.