Translation and Validation of Chronic Otitis Media Benefit Inventory (COMBI) in Turkish Language

The aim of this study was to translate the Chronic Otitis Media Benefit Inventory (COMBI) into Turkish and evaluate the questionnaire's reliability in assessing benefit outcomes in patients after ear surgery.

A total of 30 patients with chronic otitis media who underwent ear surgery were asked to fill out the translated Turkish version of the COMBI questionnaire six months after their surgery twice, 10 days apart. The patients were divided into two groups in two different ways based on surgical and audiological outcomes. These were surgical success (SS), surgical failure (SF), audiological success (AS), audiological failure (AF) groups. Student's -t test was performed to show the differences in the COMBI scores of the groups. Cronbach's alpha value was calculated to test internal consistency, Pearson's correlation coefficient was measured to demonstrate test-retest reliability and factor analysis was run.

The average score of the SS group was 51.08 and significantly higher than the score of the SF group (42.40) (p=0.012). There was, however, no statistically significant difference between the average scores of the AS and the AF groups (p=0.330). A Cronbach's alpha value of 0.862 was found. Pearson's r value was calculated 0.810. Factor analysis showed that a three-factor solution explained the 70.2% of the variance.

The Turkish version of the COMBI is a valid test with high test-retest reliability. It should be used with objective assessment tools for better understanding how patients benefit from the surgery.