The International Tinnitus Journal

Development and standardization of tinnitus handicap inventory in Kannada

Introduction: Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) was developed in English to quantify the handicap caused due to tinnitus. According to a survey conducted by USA, 40 million people are affected by tinnitus.

Objectives: India being a multilingual country needs to develop and standardize THI in Indian languages. The present study concentrates on Developing and Standardizing THI in Kannada. Materials and Methods: Questions from English version of THI were translated and modified by two professionals who have a degree of MA Kannada. Translated inventory was given to 50 native Kannada speakers for the familiarity check & the most familiar sentences were included in the study. Tinnitus questionnaire was then administered, followed by the Kannada version of THI on 140 patients and total scores were obtained. Results: Analysis revealed 14% of the patients fall under the category of Slight, 38% under Mild, 26% under Moderate, 16% under Severe and 6% under Catastrophic group. An item total correlation and Cronbach-alpha test was administered to examine the reliability measures and the scores were 0.883 and 0.885 on standardized item.

Conclusion: Scores of Cronbach-alpha test shows that Kannada version of THI is a standard and reliable tool for measuring the handicap caused by tinnitus and can successfully classify individuals on a severity basis.