ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Our hearing ability in space is critical for hearing speech in noisy environment and localization. The Spatial Hearing Questionnaire (SHQ) has been devised to focus only on spatial haring tasks (e.g., lateralization, distance detection and binaural detection). The aim of the present study was to determine the reliability and validity of the Persian translation of the SHQ (Spatial Hearing Questionnaire). METHODS: Translation and back-translation, reliability, content and construct validity were investigated. Eighty patients with sensory neural hearing loss (SNHL) (52.50% female and 47.5 % male) with the mean±SD age of 49.02±13.60 years completed SHQ, and they were categorized into mild, moderate, moderate to severe and severe groups based on their hearing threshold. Inclusion criteria in this study were the MMSE questionnaire score of higher than 21, good general health, no history of psychiatric disorders, dizziness or vertigo, dementia or alcohol abuse. RESULTS: The reliability was assessed by Cronbach's alpha and found to be 0.99. Item-total correlation was between r= 0.84 and 0.92. There was a significant difference between the mean score of PSHQ in the four groups. Based on the factor analysis, two factors were extracted from the questions in P-SHQ: sound localization; and music and speech understanding in noise and quiet. These factors could explain 82.1% and 9.3% of the total variance, respectively. CONCLUSION: The present study proved the reliability and validity of the Persian version of SHQ (PSHQ). This provides a suitable tool for spatial hearing assessment in clinical/research environments.
ABSTRACT
Over administration of diagnostic tests in health care settings is a critical issue, imposing a great deal of expenditure on health sector. Vertigo and dizziness are common complaints of many patients who seek medical advice, and the vast majority of them undergo several evaluations, including Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Laboratory tests, Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA), and Electrocardiography (ECG). The aim of this study was to investigate the performing rate of these diagnostic tests, and to evaluate their necessity and medical indications. This study was conducted on 270 dizzy patients referred to Apadana Dizziness and Vertigo Clinic, Ahvaz, Iran, from July 2008 to February 2013. Of these, 71.9% were diagnosed with peripheral lesions while laboratory assessment (58.1%) and brain MRI (38.1%) were the most requested tests. Age was an important factor, affecting the frequency of performing the ECG and Brain MRI. Medications were still administered widely even to those who seemed to respond well enough to vestibular rehabilitation. These findings revealed that many unnecessary and time-consuming diagnostic tests were performed, which had minor contribution to the final diagnosis and treatment of the patients. Therefore, a modification in the assessment methods of the dizzy patients with emphasis on history and clinical presentation seems essential.
