25 Questionnaires in otology: a systematic mapping review 2 Background A patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) gathers information obtained directly from patients without any interference from others. The terms PROM and questionnaire are often being used interchangeably although not every questionnaire is a PROM.1 Questionnaires have great value in the collection of subjective outcome measures (e.g., perceived disability) as it is a fast and cost-effective method compared to the only alternative, a patient interview. The need for subjective outcome measures has been demonstrated in studies showing that outcomes of objective measurements do not necessarily correlate with the patients’ subjective experience (e.g., audiometric results vs. perceived hearing disability).2,3 Furthermore, the burden of disease is not only the direct result of symptoms, as it can be heavily affected by accompanying cognitive and emotional factors (e.g., the fear of a vertigo attack in between two episodes), as well as environmental factors. This may cause two persons with identical disease activity to suffer from different degrees of disability. Besides quantifying subjective symptoms, questionnaires give insight into what aspects of life a patient has complaints about, or within which disability is experienced (e.g., social interactions, work). This allows caregivers to customize therapy according to the specific needs of the patients. The shift towards patient centred care in modern health care is followed by an increasing demand for validated questionnaires. The need for otology questionnaires is further demonstrated by otological conditions, like otitis media and hearing loss, being world-wide among the most common short-term and chronic diseases, respectively. Age-related hearing loss is measured to have a greater impact on global health than asthma or lung carcinoma, with future incidence expecting to rise.4 Many new questionnaires have been developed in the last decades resulting in a substantial amount of literature. A thorough review of this literature is a time-consuming process. Systematic reviews on questionnaires used in tinnitus, vertigo, or hearing loss do exist, although recently performed comprehensive studies are rare. Furthermore, many of these studies provide an overview of existing questionnaires without any additional information about the questionnaire itself. This is demonstrated by the available literature in the field of Audiology. Both Granberg et al.5 and Akeroyd et al. 6 have conducted a (systematic) search for PROMs in hearing loss and present a list of often used questionnaire titles. However, no information about the questionnaire itself is presented.
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