The Validity and Reliability of the Turkish Version of Preschool Hearing Environments and Reflection on Quality of Life Questionnaire

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess preschool children's hearingrelated quality of life and to introduce the scale, originally titled "Preschool Hearing Environments and Reflections on Quality of Life Questionnaire" (Preschool HEAR-QL), to the literature through Turkish adaption, validity, and reliability analyses. Method: Our study included 210 children aged 2-6 years: 110 with hearing loss (56 cochlear implant users and 54 hearing aid users) and 100 with normal hearing. Demographic data were collected and then the Preschool HEAR-QL, which was translated into Turkish, was administered twice at 15-day intervals. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine whether the factor structure found in the original scale development study was confirmed in our sample (construct validity). Cronbach's alpha, intraclass correlation scores, and the test-retest method were used to assess the scale's reliability as the findings were analyzed using paired samples t tests. Results: The children with hearing loss had lower scores than their normalhearing peers, and the difference was significant in the subdomains of behavior and attention, hearing environments, and communication. The subscale of the Preschool Period Listening Environments and their Reflections on Quality of Life Scale consists of 23 items, and Cronbach's alpha value was found as 0.922 in the first application and 0.926 in the second application (high reliability). In the model established for validity analysis, chi 2 /df = 2.156, root-mean-square error of approximation = 0.074, standard root-mean-square residual = 0.078, goodnessof-fit index = 0.830, adjusted goodness-of-fit index = 0.789, comparative fit index = 0.895, and Tucker-Lewis index = 0.881 (good model fit). In terms of test-retest reliability, the correlation between the two measurements was 0.837, and there was no statistical difference between the test-retest scores (p = .15). Conclusion: The Turkish version of the Preschool HEAR-QL scale was proven to be a valid and reliable scale for assessing the hearing-related quality of life of children aged 2-6 years.