Development and Initial Validation of a Meniere's Disease Quality of Life Instrument: The MenQOL.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To design and validate a disease-specific quality of life instrument for Meniere's disease. METHODS: We used a sequential process of expert input, patient focus groups, and analyses of responses to draft questionnaires to create a 24-item Meniere's disease quality of life (MenQOL) instrument. The MenQOL and the SF-36v2 were administered to a cohort of 50 patients with Meniere's disease and 60 comparison patients with tinnitus, vertigo, or hearing loss from other causes identified at a tertiary academic center. We performed exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach's α, between group comparisons of total MenQOL scores, and regression analyses between the MenQOL and SF-36v2 to evaluate the instrument's factor structure, internal consistency, face validity, and external validity. Segregation of the instrument into domains was assessed by exploratory factor analysis. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the MenQOL has a single domain. Cronbach's α = 0.914 indicated high internal consistency for the instrument as a whole. Mean MenQOL scores showing significantly worse quality of life among patients with Meniere's disease than comparison participants (52.5 ± 15.8 vs. 43.2 ± 12.6; p = 0.0051), indicating good construct validity. Significant inverse relationships in bivariate linear regressions between total MenQOL scores and SF-36v2 physical (slope = -0.94, p < 0.0001) and mental (slope = -1.16, p < 0.0001) composite scores showed acceptable concurrent validity. CONCLUSIONS: We have described the initial development of the MenQOL, a simple, valid patient-reported outcome measure that, subject to further study, may be used to assess the effects of treatment on disease-specific quality of life in patients with Meniere's disease. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 3 Laryngoscope, 2024.