Validation of a Questionnaire for Measuring Health-related Quality of Life in Patients With Chronic Otitis Media

For measuring quality of life in patients with chronic inflammation of the middle ear, only two questionnaires currently exist. However, these questionnaires are designed only to measure either disease-specific health or hearing-related quality of life. The aim of this project is the validation of a pre-existing comprehensive questionnaire, which is routinely administered in the investigators clinic but has never been validated. Following a retrospective item reduction based on existing data, this questionnaire will be prospectively validated. Applying the resulting questionnaire in future studies on chronic middle ear inflammation, not only objective outcome parameters (e.g. audiograms) but also quality of life will be assessed. Therefore, the investigators questionnaire will add substantial information to these outcome studies by providing a subjective outcome parameter.