Validity and reliability of the Hebrew version of the Brief Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders (Brief-QOD) and the Self-Reported Mini Olfactory Questionnaire (Self-MOQ)

Objective: To translate and validate Hebrew versions of two patient-reported outcome measure questionnaires: the Self-Reported Mini Olfactory Questionnaire (Self-MOQ) and the Brief Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders (Brief-QOD). Methods: A forward-backward translation process was conducted for both questionnaires. All participants rated their sense of smell using a general Visual Analog Scale (VAS) ranging from 0 (no dysfunction) to 10 (severe dysfunction). The patient group completed the questionnaires and the SNOT-22 questionnaire once. A control group of healthy participants completed the questionnaires twice to evaluate test-retest reliability. Subsets of both groups took the Sniffin’ Sticks test. Results: The translation process resulted in Hebrew versions deemed clear and culturally appropriate. A total of 91 individuals were enrolled in the control group and 62 in the patient group. The Hebrew versions of the Self-MOQ and Brief-QOD demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α of 0.79–0.94 in the full sample) and overall test-retest reliability. The patient group had higher scores than the control group across all measures (p < 0.001). Logistic regression indicated that the Self-MOQ was the strongest predictor of group membership, while the Brief-QOD QOL and Visual Analog Scale components also significantly contributed. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identified an optimal Self-MOQ cutoff score of ≥ 2 for distinguishing patients from controls, with excellent accuracy (AUC = 0.97). Conclusions: The Hebrew Self-MOQ and Brief-QOD are reliable and valid tools for assessing olfactory dysfunction in the Hebrew-speaking population. Future research should evaluate questionnaire results after clinical interventions.