34 Chapter 2 In order to determine the accuracy of our search, it is necessary to compare our work to various other (systematic) reviews that all pertain to a specific category within the topic of otology questionnaires. Hearing loss First, a comprehensive review by Akeroyd et al.6 of all adult hearing loss questionnaires reported a total of 139 questionnaires. These results were exceeded in our search (i.e., 228 hearing questionnaires prior to eligibility assessment). However, the absence of information on the methods or the identified questionnaires did not allow further comparison. Granberg et al.5 performed a systematic review on outcome measures used in adults with hearing loss: 34 condition-specific questionnaires were presented. The majority of these questionnaires were identified in our search: 23 out of 34. A possible explanation for the difference in identified questionnaires could be the difference in databases that were consulted. Granberg et al. consulted 7 databases (i.e., PsycInfo, CINAHL, AMED, ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, PsycArticles, and CENT RAL) in addition to PubMed and Embase.com. The scoping review by Barker et al.12 on outcome measurements used in randomized clinical trials in adult auditory rehabilitative research, identified 13 hearing questionnaires. All except the 2 questionnaires focused on communication (the Primary Communication Inventory13 and the Communication Scale for Older Adults14) were identified in our results. Most likely as our research and search focused on ‘hearing’ as a complaint in daily ENT practice, ‘communication’ did not match with synonyms or had any ‘hearing’ overlap. No description of questionnaire (development) characteristics was given by Barker et al., Granberg et al., or Akeroyd et al. Therefore, these studies appear less useful for questionnaire selection purposes compared to this study. Multiple complaints The definition “multiple complaint questionnaire” (i.e., ≥3 ear-related symptoms) is not conventional in questionnaire literature as we have defined this for the purpose of this study. This is because in many ear diseases, prior or post-treatment, many patients complain about 3 or more symptoms. This is also seen in the recent development and use of more generic otology questionnaires when used in a population with all kinds of diseases of the ear (OQUA8, COQOL15). Questionnaires that inquire information about “multiple complaints” are usually designed as disease-specific questionnaires.
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