Development and Psychometric Validation of the Olfactory Dysfunction Outcomes Rating.

Area of Science:

• Otolaryngology
• Quality of Life Research
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Olfactory dysfunction (OD) is a growing health concern, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Accurate measurement of smell loss impact on quality of life (QOL) is crucial for treatment assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a brief, visually appealing patient-reported outcome measure for OD-associated QOL.
• The goal was to create a tool to assess the impact of smell loss and treatment response.

Main Methods:

• Item generation involved analyzing an online survey of 1000 OD patients, interviewing 30 OD patients, and expert review by 4 otolaryngologists.
• Validation was performed on 283 OD patients using psychometric measures including internal consistency, reliability, and validity.

Main Results:

• The Olfactory Dysfunction Outcomes Rating (ODOR) is a 28-item instrument (0-112 points), with higher scores indicating greater QOL limitation.
• Validation demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach α=0.968) and test-retest reliability (r=0.90).
• The ODOR showed strong face, content, concurrent, and discriminant validity, with a minimal clinically important difference of 15 points. Completion time is ~5 minutes.

Conclusions:

• The ODOR is a novel, concise, reliable, and valid patient-reported outcome measure for OD-associated QOL.
• It effectively captures physical, functional, and emotional impacts of smell loss.
• The ODOR is clinically applicable for assessing interventions, especially relevant given the rise of OD post-COVID-19.