Development of the Device-Oriented Subjective Outcome (DOSO) Scale

Background: The empiric basis for this work is derived from previous research completed in our laboratory and published in 2005 and 2007. The previous work suggested that self-report hearing aid outcomes can be viewed as device oriented or wearer oriented. Furthermore, compared with wearer-oriented outcomes, device-oriented outcomes were more independent of personality variables. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a device-oriented questionnaire to measure self-report hearing aid outcomes. Research Design: Design was a descriptive study in which 140 potential questionnaire items were evaluated and a questionnaire was devised. Study Sample: A total of 306 adult hearing aid wearers participated: 189 were clinical patients and 117 were participants in hearing aid field trials. Data Collection and Analysis: Some items and some participants were removed because of insufficient responses. The final dataset included 295 participants and 66 items. Response data were subjected to exploratory principal component analysis with orthogonal rotation. Six components, explaining 64% of the variance, were retained. Item statistics were examined. Results: Six subscales were identified. Long and short forms of the questionnaire were developed. There are two equivalent versions of the short form. Conclusions: The Device-Oriented Subjective Outcome (DOSO) questionnaire is suitable for quantifying subjective hearing aid outcomes in both research and clinical settings. The DOSO is especially suited for comparing outcomes with different hearing aids. Future research is needed to cross-validate the results, determine retest consistency, and to explore the extent to which data from the DOSO is independent of personality.