Glasgow Benefit Inventory in Cochlear Implantation: A Reliable Though Ancillary Quality of Life Metric

Abstract

Objective: The Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI) is a healthrelated quality of life instrument used to detect changes in health status following otolaryngologic interventions. Despite its use in cochlear implant literature, assessment of utility, reliability, and validity of GBI in an adult cochlear implants (CI) patient population has yet to be performed. Study Design: Retrospective case series. Setting: Academic, tertiary referral center. Patients: Postlingually deafened, adult CI patients with at least 1 year of device use. Interventions: Five hundred fifty-two patients were administered GBI questionnaires at least 1 year following CI activation during follow-up visits. Main Outcome Measures: GBI total and subscale scoring were compared to either the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults or Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly. Moreover, a factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha were performed to determine GBI validity and internal reliability, respectively. Results:The average overall GBI score was 38.6 AE 21.7. This was weakly correlated to the reduction in Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults/Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (t b ¼ 0.282, p < 0.05). High factor loading with minimal cross-loading was noted on a three-factor solution, which emulated the original GBI development. Internal reliability was acceptable for the general benefit (a ¼ 0.913) and social support subclasses (a ¼ 0.706), whereas physical health's was low (a ¼ 0.643). Conclusions: Although GBI possesses adequate convergent and discriminant validity with acceptable reliability, its routine use to capture CI-specific health-related changes should not supersede validated CI-specific QoL instruments.

Perceived Health Benefits in Vestibular Schwannoma Patients with Long-Term Postoperative Headache: Insights from Personality Traits and Pain Coping—A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The set of 18 questions focuses on various aspects of general, social, and physical health. Scores span from −100 to +100, where a score of zero signifies no benefit, +100 represents the highest level of benefit, and negative scores indicate a worsening of health [25].…”