OBJECTIVE: Ménière's Disease (MD) is a chronic, non-life threatening inner ear 
disease, with attacks of disabling vertigo, progressive hearing loss, and 
tinnitus as the major symptoms. All three symptoms, separately or in 
combination, cause great distress and have a considerable impact on the quality 
of life of the patients. The aims of this study were to develop a 
disease-specific quality of life survey for patients with MD and to analyze the 
relationships between the audiovestibular findings and the survey.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Following Ear-Nose-Throat examination and audiovestibular 
tests, the Dokuz Eylül University Meniere's Disease Disability Scale (DEU-MDDS) 
and Turkish version of the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI-T) were 
administered to 93 patients with definite MD. Reliability and validity analyses 
of the scale were performed.
RESULTS: There were 45 (48.4%) male and 48 (51.6%) female patients and the mean 
age was 48.9±12.1 years. Cronbach's alpha was 0.92 and intraclass correlation 
coefficients of the DEU-MMDS were significant (p<0.001). Results of the Goodness 
of Fit Statistics showed that the expression levels of the items were high and 
the correlation coefficients of each item with the scale were sufficient. There 
was a statistically significant correlation between DHI-T scores and MDDS. 
DEU-MDDS was not related to the vestibular tests, age or gender (p>0.05).
CONCLUSION: The MDDS is a valid and reliable scale as a disease-specific quality 
of life questionnaire for patients with MD.