Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov 14:3:1005525.
doi: 10.3389/fresc.2022.1005525. eCollection 2022.

The development of a Self-Rated ICF-based questionnaire (HEAR-COMMAND Tool) to evaluate Hearing, Communication, and Conversation disability: Multinational experts' and patients' perspectives

Tahereh Afghah  1 , Razan Alfakir  2 , Markus Meis  1 , Lisette van Leeuwen  3 , Sophia E Kramer  3 , Mahmoud Hammady  4 , Mostafa Youssif  4 , Kirsten C Wagener  1
Affiliations

The development of a Self-Rated ICF-based questionnaire (HEAR-COMMAND Tool) to evaluate Hearing, Communication, and Conversation disability: Multinational experts' and patients' perspectives

Tahereh Afghah et al. Front Rehabil Sci. .

Abstract

Objective: An instrument that facilitates the advancement of hearing healthcare delivery from a biomedical model to a biopsychosocial one that underpins the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health framework (ICF) brief and comprehensive Core Sets for Hearing Loss (CSHL) is currently unavailable. The objective is to describe the process of developing and validating a new questionnaire named the HEAR-COMMAND Tool created by transferring the ICF CSHL into a theory-supported, practically manageable concept.

Design: A team from Germany, the USA, the Netherlands, and Egypt collaborated on development. The following ICF domains were considered; "Body Functions" (BF), "Activities and Participation" (AP), and "Environmental Factors" (EF). The development yielded English, German, and Arabic versions. A pilot validation study with a total of 109 respondents across three countries, Germany, Egypt, and the USA was conducted to revise the item terminology according to the feedback provided by the respondents.

Results: The questionnaire included a total of 120 items. Ninety items were designed to collect information on the functioning and 30 items inquiring about demographic information, hearing status, and Personal Factors. Except for the "Body Structures" (BS) domain, all the categories of the brief ICF CSHL were covered (a total of 85% of the categories). Moreover, the items covered 44% of the comprehensive ICF CSHL categories including 73% of BF, 55% of AP, and 27% of EF domains. Overall, the terminology of 24 ICF-based items was revised based on the qualitative analysis of the respondents' feedback to further clarify the items that were found tod be unclear or misleading. The tool highlighted the broad connection of HL with bodily health and contextual factors.

Conclusions: The HEAR-COMMAND Tool was developed based on the ICF CSHL and from multinational experts' and patients' perspectives with the aim to improve the execution of audiological services, treatment, and rehabilitation for adult patients with HL. Additional validation of the tool is ongoing. The next step would be to pair the tool with BS categories since it was excluded from the tool and determine its effectiveness in guiding hearing health care practitioners to holistically classify categories influencing hearing, communication, and conversation disability.

Keywords: ICF core sets for hearing loss; International Classification of Functioning disability and health; communication disability; hearing impairment; hearing loss questionnaire; outcome measure.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). Hearing health care for adults: Priorities for improving access and affordability. Washington, DC, USA: National Academies Press; (2016). - PubMed
    1. Wagener KC, Afghah T, Schütze J, Meis M, Kollmeier B. Facing the individual hearing demands in personalized hearing rehabilitation. [Conference presentation abstract]. 15th European federation of audiology societies (EFAS), May 20 (2021).
    1. National Research Council (US) Committee on Disability Determination for Individuals with Hearing Impairments. In: RA Dobie, SB Van Hemel, editors. Hearing loss: determining eligibility for social security benefits. Washington, DC, USA: National Academies Press (US) (2004). Section 6: Impact of Hearing Loss on Daily Life and the Workplace. p. 163–79. 10.17226/11099. PMID: ; Bookshelf ID: NBK207838 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bentler RA, Kramer SE. Guidelines for choosing a self-report outcome. Ear & Hearing. (2000) 21:37S–49S. 10.1097/00003446-200008001-00006 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Manchaiah V, Granberg S, Grover V, Saunders GH, Ann Hall D. Content validity and readability of patient-reported questionnaire instruments of hearing disability. Int J Audiol. (2019) 58(9):565–75. 10.1080/14992027.2019.1602738 - DOI - PubMed