Table 2.
Characteristics of included disease-specific HRQoL questionnaires.
| Questionnaire | Number of items | Score | Subscales | Recall period | MCID | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ear symptoms | Hearing function | Mental health | Health service utilization | Lifestyle and work impact / social | Others | |||||
| CES Chronic Ear Survey | 13 | 0–100 4-/6- point Likert scale |
|
|
Absent |
|
|
No recall period mentioned, with the exception of: | Unknown | |
| Ear discharge, pain, odor | Hearing loss | Doctor visits antibiotic use | Water avoidance; Interference with social life | ear drainage and health service utilization 6 months, social impact 4 weeks. | ||||||
| Dizziness, tinnitus | ||||||||||
| COMOT-15 Chronic Otitis Media Outcome Test | 15 | 0–100 6-point Likert scale |
|
|
|
|
Absent |
|
6 months | Unknown |
| Ear discharge, pain, pressure, tinnitus | Hearing loss, situational hearing problems | Related to hearing loss | Doctor visits | Overall QoL, headache | ||||||
| Odor Dizziness/vertigo | ||||||||||
| COMQ-12 Chronic Otitis Media Questionnaire | 12 | 0–60 6-point Likert scale |
|
|
|
|
|
6 months | Unknown values <8 indicate a normal HRQoL in healthy population (44) | |
| Ear discharge, odor, discomfort, dizziness, tinnitus | Situational hearing problems | Overall impact | Doctor visits, Antibiotic use | Water avoidance, Interference with social/work | ||||||
| ZCMEI-21 Zurich Chronic Middle Ear Inventory | 21 | 0–84 5-point Likert scale |
|
|
|
|
|
2 weeks health service utilization 6 months | MCID: 5.3 | |
| Ear discharge, Pain, pressure, balance, problems, tinnitus | Hearing loss, Situational hearing problems | Anxiety | Doctor visits, antibiotic use | Water avoidance, interference with social/work | ||||||
| Odor | ||||||||||
HRQoL, Health-Related Quality of Life; MCID, Minimal Clinically Important Difference. In all questionnaires higher scores indicate poorer HRQoL. Except for CES in which higher scores indicate better HRQoL. The green part of a circle indicates the portion of the questionnaire which is covered by the specific subscale. All terms to describe symptoms or subscales are abstracted from the questionnaires. Red blocks indicate the absence of a specific factor or whole subscale in the questionnaire.