French adaptation and validation of the Chronic Otitis Media Questionnaire-12 (COMQ-12)

Chronic otitis media (COM) can seriously impact quality of life (QOL). Disease-specific questionnaires are essential for an accurate assessment of this impact. There is no questionnaire available for French-speaking patients with COM. This study aims to adapt and validate the French version of the COMQ-12 questionnaire. This is a controlled, prospective study, conducted between May 2020 and December 2021. Translation was performed using a forward-backward technique, and statistical validation was performed with a COM patients and a controls adult cohorts. 100 patients (mean age 48 ± 16), and 50 controls (mean age 41 ± 16; p = 0.02) completed the test. Internal consistency, assessed by Cronbach’s alpha, was 0.870 for the cases group. The mean COMQ-12 total score was 23.92 ± 11.3 for cases versus 3.70 ± 6.15 for controls (p < 0.0001). Individual items all had high discriminatory performances. The three items concerning ear discharge (Q1, Q2, Q9) had weaker correlation with the other items and the global score, but did not have a negative impact on internal consistency. The French version of the COMQ-12 is a short and easy-to-use test, with robust statistical properties, for assessing QOL in patients with COM.

慢性中耳炎（Chronic otitis media, COM）会严重损害患者的生活质量（quality of life, QOL）。针对特定疾病的专用问卷是精准评估此类影响的不可或缺的工具。目前尚无面向法语区慢性中耳炎患者的COM专用问卷。本研究旨在改编并验证COMQ-12问卷的法语版本。本研究为一项对照前瞻性研究，于2020年5月至2021年12月间开展。翻译环节采用正反向翻译法，统计验证则纳入慢性中耳炎患者与健康成人对照队列。最终共有100例患者（平均年龄48±16岁）与50名对照者（平均年龄41±16岁；p=0.02）完成测试。以克朗巴赫α系数（Cronbach’s alpha）评估的内部一致性在病例组中达0.870。病例组的COMQ-12总分均值为23.92±11.3，对照组为3.70±6.15（p<0.0001）。各单项条目均具备优异的区分性能。3项涉及耳溢液的条目（Q1、Q2、Q9）与其余条目及总分的相关性较弱，但未对内部一致性产生负面影响。COMQ-12法语版是一款简短易用、统计特性稳健的评估工具，可用于慢性中耳炎患者的生活质量评估。