113 Ear complaints in a general population; the Normative data of the Otology Questionnaire Amsterdam in the Netherlands 6 supplier, Panel Inzicht.11 Panel Inzicht has a Dutch panel of 125.000 unique participants that can be reached out to in order to fill in online surveys. Participants who complete the survey get awarded a certain amount of points based on the expected time investment. A completed OQUA was rewarded with points with a converted value of €0,31 at the time of completion. Because of the expected differences in scores of complaints within the continuum of age (in particular hearing loss) the sample was evenly stratified for age and sex. Age groups were 18-29 years, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 70-79 years and 80+. After a small initial sample, a response rate was estimated and a total of 2859 participants from the panel supplier were contacted to fill in the OQUA. The selection of these participants was automatically randomized. Before completing the OQUA questionnaire, respondents were queried about fundamental demographic information (e.g. age, sex and region of residence) and other information like level of education, smoking habits, and their history of visits to a consultant in otorhinolaryngology. This additional information served not only as potential exclusion criteria but also as data for prospective subgroup analysis. The hypothesis was that low OQUA scores of complaints and impact in the general population will be found in the results. Since hearing loss and related tinnitus are common complaints with high prevalence in older age groups we assumed that scores In these subscales would be slightly higher in older aged groups scores in these subscales in the results. High OQUA subscales scores were not expected. We assumed that participants with high scores would most likely visit a specialist for help. And exclusion criteria for inclusion in the sample were; previous ear surgery or and any previous visit to a consultant in otorhinolaryngology for an ear- or hearing related problem. Data analysis The OQUA scoring manual, a supplement of the validation study of the OQUA was used to calculate subscale OQUA scores. In this scoring manual an average of the Likert scales per subscale was multiplied by the severity VAS creating a 0 to 100 score per subscale. A lower score indicates a lower symptom burden while a higher score reflects to a greater burden, on both the impact and the complaint scales. The used scoring manual (bv digital suplement 1) was an improved version of the previously published version.9 Normative scores were calculated based on the distribution of values of the OQUA in a nationally representative in the Netherlands. Severity of the scores was expressed in terms of meaningful percentiles (50%, 75% and 95%) as an estimate of these
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjY0ODMw