title: Adaptation of the Arabic Version of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To translate the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) into literary Arabic to come up with a unified Arabic version and to determine its validity and reliability in assessing the quality of life of Arabic-speaking patients with tinnitus.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinical measurement study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tertiary care center.
  
  
  METHODS
  The original English THI was translated into literary Arabic by a forward- and back-translation process according to the published guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality-of-life measures and applied to 100 patients with chronic tinnitus. Internal consistency reliability was then assessed by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Pearson correlation coefficients were also calculated for the different scales and the different baseline characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results showed high internal consistency and reliability coefficients (total THI: 0.93, functional subscale: 0.86, emotional subscale: 0.86, catastrophic subscale: 0.66) comparable to those of the original English THI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Arabic version of the THI is a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of the impact of tinnitus on the quality of life of Arabic-speaking patients with the complaint of chronic tinnitus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Rana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barake
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Samer Abou
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Rizk
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ziade
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zaytoun
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon mb81@aub.edu.lb.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bassim
mesh_terms: D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007861:Lebanon; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Arabic language; questionnaire; reliability; tinnitus; translation