A New Health-Related Quality of Life Measure for Active Chronic Otitis Media (COMQ-12)

OBJECTIVE: To develop and document for clinical use a new HRQoL questionnaire for the assessment of active chronic otitis media. STUDY DESIGN: Two-center prospective correlational study. SETTING: Two otology referral centers in England. PATIENTS: Fifty consecutive adult patients with a history of active chronic otitis media. RESULTS: Consistency criteria (Cronbach's alpha) and first principle component loadings showed satisfactory scoring with 11 of the original 12 items. A single factor was obtained correlating highly with simple unweighted scoring. CONCLUSION: Sufficient consistency and initial validity information was obtained from patients with a history of active chronic otitis media to justify clinical use of the reduced item set and acquisition of further data to refine scoring.