Psychometric Evaluation of the Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation Scale for Pediatric Patients

To evaluate the psychometric properties of the nasal obstruction symptom scale within a sample of pediatric patients undergoing septoplasty or functional septorhinoplasty.

This was a prospective study with nasal obstruction symptom scale evaluations conducted pre- and postoperatively.

A tertiary care pediatric hospital.

Pediatric patients underwent septoplasty or functional septorhinoplasty (FSR) from January 2013 to January 2017. Reliability of the scale was assessed through measures of internal consistency. In addition, item response models of each item were evaluated to assess how well each item captured individuals with varying levels of nasal obstruction. Study authors assessed face validity, and construct validity was assessed by correlation measures between items and exploratory factor analysis.

A total of 136 patients, ages 8 to 18 years with a mean age of 15.7 ± 2.1 years, completed pre- and postoperative evaluations. Internal consistency of the scale was high (Cronbach's α = 0.83). Predominantly a unidimensional scale resulted from exploratory factor analyses. Item response models indicate questions capture low to moderate levels of nasal obstruction within this population. Additional analyses show the scale functions similarly between septoplasty and FSR patients.

The Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation scale is a robust tool that may be incorporated as a subjective evaluation of severity of nasal obstruction among pediatric patients undergoing a septoplasty or functional septorhinoplasty.