Translation and adaptation of the ABEL: Auditory Behavior in Everyday Life questionnaire into Brazilian Portuguese.

PURPOSE To translate and adapt the ABEL--Auditory Behavior in Everyday Life--questionnaire into Brazilian Portuguese, and to establish the profile of auditory behavior in a group of children who use hearing aids. METHODS The ABEL questionnaire was translated and back translated. This version was compared to the original version regarding semantic equivalence, generating a new version in Portuguese. After that, 31 parents of children fitted with hearing aids answered an anamnesis and the Portuguese version of the ABEL questionnaire. The scores obtained were related to the variables investigated in the anamnesis. RESULTS Differences were found in the analysis of the aural-oral score for the variables degree of hearing loss and time of daily use of the hearing aid: children with milder degrees of hearing loss and/or children who use the hearing aid for longer periods showed better performances. There were also differences in total and auditory awareness scores for the variable time of daily use of the hearing aid, indicating that children who user their hearing aids for longer periods daily showed better performances. CONCLUSION There was consistency between the versions generated during the translation of the questionnaire, allowing the formulation of its final version in Portuguese. Children with lower degrees of hearing loss and/or who use their hearing aids for longer periods have their daily activities less affected by the hearing loss. The ABEL questionnaire is an appropriate instrument to detail the development of auditory behaviors in children who use hearing aids.