Determining validity and reliability of oral health-related quality of life instrument for clinical consequences of untreated dental caries in children

Background and Objective: Many instruments have been developed to measure oral health-related quality of life for dental disease, however, no measurement available on clinical consequences of untreated dental caries, specifically for children. The aim of this study was to develop an instrument in this purpose derived from child oral health-related quality of life (COHRQoL) and determine its validity and reliability. Methodology: At first stage of the study, measuring of content validity of preliminary study was conducted on a sample of 34 students, between 6 and 12 years-of-age. All subjects completed the pilot COHRQoL-25 questionnaire, which measure five dimensions for clinical consequences of untreated caries included functional limitations, physical well-being, emotional well-being, social well-being and school. The second stage of this study was construct validity through principal components factor analysis on a sample of 400 students. Each component in the assessment instruments demonstrated internal consistency (alpha range = 0.847-0.940). Results: The validity coefficient for functional limitations was 0.847, physical well-being 0.877, emotional well-being 0.891, social well-being 0.845 and school 0.839 and the reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) for functional limitations was 0.939, physical well-being 0.933, emotional well-being 0.931, social well-being 0.940 and school 0.940. Correlational analysis demonstrated a core of critical instrument items to be considered for future assessment of the quality of life. Conclusion: This study revealed, all items showed high coefficient, provided evidence that the developed instrument (OHRQoL-25) is valid and reliable for assessing oral health-related quality of life with the clinical consequences of untreated dental caries in children.