The Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ)
The TQ has been widely used for over 20 years to evaluate typical psychological effects of tinnitus and to explore its correlates. The questionnaire was first developed during a programme of research at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital in London (1981-1988). A German translation by Gerhard Goebel and Wolfgang Hiller at Klinik Roseneck, Prien am Chiemsee, has been thoroughly researched and is in common use. Translations have been made into Spanish, Dutch, French, and Chinese (Cantonese). The TQ has been employed in psychological research into tinnitus, in the evaluation of treatment interventions, and to examine relationships between complaint and audiometrically assessed properties of tinnitus. The manual of the TQ, first published in 1996, is now out of print. To purchase an updated manual, revised in 2008 contact Dawson Books. Although test forms are not supplied, full details of items, instructions, scoring and norms can be found in the manual and adapted for individual research purposes.
The Hearing Attitudes in Rehabilitation Questionnaire (HARQ) was developed with Denzil Brooks and first published in 1996. It provides a measure of attitudes towards, and beliefs about, (1) acquired hearing impairment and (2) provision of a hearing aid. The HARQ was constructed as a self-report screening assessment of the effects of hearing impairment, the need for counselling with respect to hearing loss, and the likelihood of making good use of a hearing aid. It has been shown to predict frequency of use and satisfaction with a hearing aid 3-9 months after fitting.
Reference: Brooks, D N and Hallam R S. Attitudes to hearing difficulty and hearing aids and the outcome of audiological rehabilitation. British Journal of Audiology, 1998, 32, 217-226.
This 54-item self-report questionnaire assesses the range of conversational tactics that people employ when it becomes difficult to converse through reasons of hearing loss and/or background noise. The content of the items is meaningful to normally hearing individuals as well as to persons with a hearing loss. The checklist was devised for use in a study of acquired profound hearing loss (Hallam et al., 2007) but is currently being developed for wider research questions.
Reference: Hallam, R S, Ashton, P, Sherbourne, K, Gailey, L, & Corney, R. Coping, conversation tactics and marital interaction in persons with acquired profound hearing loss (APHL): Correlates of distress. Audiological Medicine, 2007, 5 (2), 103-111.
All content © Richard Hallam 2009-2011