Validation of an outcomes instrument for tonsil and adenoid disease.

OBJECTIVE: To design and validate a disease-specific health status instrument-the Tonsil and Adenoid Health Status Instrument-for use in children with tonsil and adenoid disease. DESIGN: Prospective psychometric and clinimetric instrument validation in 3 stages. SETTINGS: A tertiary academic pediatric specialty hospital and a tertiary academic hospital, in 2 different cities. PATIENTS/OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Children with tonsil and adenoid disease presenting for evaluation and treatment (n = 224). INTERVENTION/METHOD: Prospective instrument validation. Stage 1 consisted of initial item testing, reduction, and subscale construction; stage 2, reliability and validity testing, factor analysis, and final item reduction; and stage 3, responsiveness analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Test-retest and internal consistency reliability; content, construct, and criterion validity; orthogonal principal components factor analysis; and response sensitivity analysis. RESULTS: Factor analysis and item analysis confirmed 6 distinct subscales measuring different constructs (aspects) of disease-specific health status that are affected by tonsil and adenoid disease: eating and swallowing, airway and breathing, infections, health care utilization, cost of care, and behavior. For each subscale, the Tonsil and Adenoid Health Status Instrument demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability (r = 0.72-0.88) and internal consistency reliability (Cronbach alpha = .73-.87). Content validity was ensured during the design process. Construct validity was demonstrated by means of convergent and divergent validity with a global quality-of-life instrument (the Child Health Questionnaire, version PF28). Criterion validity was also satisfactory. Finally, the instrument was appropriately sensitive, with high standardized response means and effect sizes. CONCLUSIONS: The Tonsil and Adenoid Health Status Instrument is a valid, reliable, and sensitive instrument with 6 distinct subscales. This instrument has significant utility for outcomes research in children with tonsil and adenoid disease.

Outcomes and quality of life in conductive hearing loss.

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to measure quality of life (QOL) and hearing-specific functional status before and after treatment of conductive hearing loss (CHL). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: A prospective, longitudinal, outcomes-based study was performed at an academic medical center. RESULTS: Mean baseline QOL scores in CHL patients were comparable with those of the general population. Audiometric studies indicated significant improvements in hearing threshold in all treated patients. There was no significant improvement in mean global QOL scores after treatment of CHL, although there was little room for improvement over baseline. The hearing-specific instrument did demonstrate significant improvements in emotional and social/situational hearing status after treatment. Patients treated with hearing aids had poorer baseline QOL and hearing status than patients treated with surgery and tended to show declines in QOL and only partial improvement in hearing-specific functional status after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of CHL resulted in improvements in hearing-specific functional status, although changes were difficult to detect with a global QOL instrument.

Does the severity of sinus computed tomography findings predict outcome in chronic sinusitis?

OBJECTIVES: We studied the association between the severity of pretreatment CT scan findings and the improvement in symptoms of chronic sinusitis after treatment. METHODS: We analyzed data from an ongoing prospective, nonrandomized clinical outcomes study of patients treated for chronic sinusitis at a tertiary-care academic medical center (n = 57, mean age 46.8 years). Disease-specific symptom severity was measured with a validated health status instrument, and CT stage was quantified with the Harvard CT staging system. RESULTS: In a multivariate analysis, symptom severity based on CT findings emerged as a strong predictor of both improvement in symptom score outcome (beta = 0.47, P = 0.01) and absolute symptom level after treatment (beta = -0.58, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Severity as assessed by a pretreatment CT scan is a strong predictor of outcome. Patients with higher symptom severity based on CT scans showed significantly larger improvement and lower absolute levels of symptom severity after treatment. This study links CT scan findings and subjective patient-based outcomes (symptom scores) using a validated outcomes instrument.

Quality of life and health status in pediatric tonsil and adenoid disease.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the baseline global health status and quality of life (QOL) in children with tonsil and adenoid disease. DESIGN: Cross-sectional multicenter survey series. SETTINGS: A tertiary academic pediatric specialty hospital and a tertiary academic hospital in 2 different cities. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Consecutive series of 55 parents of children who were seen for tonsil and adenoid disease. INTERVENTION AND METHOD: Cross-sectional survey of the health status of affected children to assess their QOL and its relationship to tonsil and adenoid disease. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Quality-of-life subscale scores of affected children on the Child Health Questionnaire version PF28 (CHQ-PF28); comparisons of population data from healthy normal children and children with asthma and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. RESULTS: The overall health status and QOL of children with tonsil and adenoid disease is significantly worse than those of healthy normal children, as demonstrated by lower mean scores on several CHQ-PF28 subscales, including general health, physical functioning, behavior, bodily pain, and parental impact (emotional). In addition, the general health perception of children with tonsil and adenoid disease is similar to the perceptions of children with asthma and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, but several aspects of health status, as measured by CHQ-PF28 subscale scores, were significantly worse in children with tonsil and adenoid disease. CONCLUSION: The health status impact of tonsil and adenoid disease appears to be quite significant, particularly in aspects related to the parental impact of the child's disease.

Is parental perception an accurate predictor of childhood hearing loss? A prospective study.

OBJECTIVE: We performed this study to assess whether parental perception of hearing loss predicted the results of audiometric testing in children with recurrent otitis media or persistent otitis media with effusion. METHODS: As part of a larger prospective observational outcomes study of children undergoing tympanostomy tube placement, the child's parent completed a standardized questionnaire before and after tube placement. In addition, patients underwent age-appropriate audiologic threshold and tympanometry testing before and after tube placement. RESULTS: We enrolled 113 patients (median age, 2 years), and 93 (82%) completed follow-up. Before treatment, parental perception of hearing loss did not predict hearing threshold level. After tube placement, parental perception of hearing loss was also poorly correlated with change in threshold. CONCLUSIONS: Parental perception of their child's hearing loss is a poor predictor of objective audiologic findings both before and after treatment with tympanostomy tubes. These findings have important implications concerning the importance of screening for hearing loss in children with otitis media with effusion.

Identification of nearly fatal suicide attempts: Self-Inflicted Injury Severity Form.

The Self-Inflicted Injury Severity Form (SIISF) was developed as an epidemiological research tool for identifying individuals in hospital emergency departments who have life-threatening self-inflicted injuries. Data were collected from 715 patients with self-inflicted injuries in two large hospitals. In 295 of these cases, a second set of data was independently collected for assessment of interrater reliability. Validity was assessed by comparing the SIISF results with simultaneously collected Risk-Rescue Ratings. Assessment of interrater reliability found that only 2.4% of physicians disagreed on the suicide method used. The kappa statistic for method used was .94, indicating excellent agreement. The SIISF was found to distinguish between severe and less severe injuries. Thus, it appears to provide a simple method to distinguish patients who have life-threatening self-inflicted injuries.