Translation and Adaptation of the Auditory Behavior in Everyday Life (ABEL) Questionnaire into Persian: A Pilot Study.

Abstract

Background: Auditory rehabilitation isone of the important tasks of speech-language pathologists. So, it is necessary to know auditory behaviors in order to make some decisions about the children with hearing loss such as determining the effectiveness of the current rehabilitation programs and/or devices. The Auditory Behavior in Everyday Life (ABEL) questionnaire is a valid and reliable assessment tool in English which is developed by Purdy et al. (1995). The aim of this study was to translate and adapt ABEL questionnaire for Persian language.Methods:The ABEL consists of three factors ofauditory-oral, auditory awareness, and conversational/social skills. First, the questionnaire was translated and culturally adapted from English to Persian by an independent Iranian translator. The back translated version was compared with the original one in terms of the semantic/idiomatic equivalence. Then the questionnaire was completed two times by 43 mothers of 4-to-6 year old children with hearing loss who were using either hearing aids or cochlear implants. Finally, the results of the test-retest reliability were statistically compared in order to assess internal consistency. The statistical tests which were used include Cronbach’s Alpha, Spearman correlation, and Pearson correlation tests in significance level of 0.05.Results: There was a significant strength correlation among the items of the factor 1 (Alpha=0.94), factor 2 (Alpha=0.86), factor 3 (Alpha=0.82) and three factors (Alpha=0.96). There was a significant strength correlation at the 0.01 level between the scores of each factor in test-retest include auditory-oral (Spearman’s rho=0.94, P<0.001), auditory awareness (Spearman’s rho=0.92, P<0.001), and conversational/social skills (Spearman’s rho=0.82, P<0.001).Conclusion: The Persian version of ABEL questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of auditory performance development in Persian-speaking children wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants. So, the ABEL questionnaire can be applied by parents/caregivers, clinicians, and researchers in order to appraise children’s auditory behaviors in everyday living.