Table of Contents

ABSTRACT

Self-reported questionnaires are clinically important to attain the psychosocial and psychosomatic information of tinnitus from patients’ perspective. Among others, a Malay tinnitus questionnaire, known as Borang Evaluasi Soal selidik Tinitus (BEST), has been used in clinical settings aiming at assessing the tinnitus severity among Malay-speaking adults. Consisting of 25 items categorized under “3M” domains (mind, main and mental), its psychometric properties have been found to be robust. Nevertheless, in busy clinical settings, having a short and valid self-reported questionnaire is advantageous in terms of time effective-ness. Essentially, the aim of the present study was to develop and validate a simplified version of BEST questionnaire among Malaysian adults with complaint of tinnitus. In this validation study, the items for the simplified BEST questionnaire were selected based on representation of domains, high factor loadings, and experts’ opinion. Subsequently, 10 items were chosen, and the validity and the reliability of this questionnaire were tested among patients with tinnitus (n = 32). As revealed, a strong correlation was found between the score of simplified BEST and the total score of the original BEST (r = 0.96, p < 0.001). Among the domains, the strongest correlation was found when the simplified BEST was compared with the main domain (r = 0.93, p < 0.001). In contrast, no significant correlation was observed between the simplified BEST and the mental domain (r = 0.14, p = 0.438). The Cronbach’s alpha for the simplified BEST and original BEST (total score) were 0.79 and 0.91, respectively. To conclude, the 10-item simplified version of BEST questionnaire had been developed and validated accordingly. Based on the study results, it was found to be valid and reliable for intended clinical applications. Keywords: Tinnitus, severity, questionnaire, validity, reliability