Background: In order to validly measure the oral health related quality of life in school age children it is necessary to adapt and validate the CPQ 11-14 for Spanish language. To confirm the four domains of CPQ-Esp 11-14 for the full and abbreviated version of 16 and 8 items.
Methods: The instrument was translated into Spanish and culturally adapted. It was administered to 288 12 year-old children attending public schools. Dental caries experience was measure with the DMFT index. The conceptual structure of the scales was assessed by the AFC. It was also evaluated: internal consistency with Cronbach 's alpha, test- retest temporal stability with intraclass correlation coeficient, and concurrent validity with correlation of score CPQ-Esp 11-14 with caries experience.
Results: The five measures used to confirm the structure of the factors on the version of 37 items showed values outside the range of the model fit. Version 16 and 8 items obtained indicators within values indicating the model fit. The internal consistency of full scale and versions 16 and 8 items were measured with Cronbach Alpha wich was higher than 0.6. All versions had intraclass correlation coefficient above 0.81, except for functional limitations of the subscale version a of 16 items. The Rho Spearman correlation was significant between CAOD and the score the questionnaire, except for oral symptoms and full version b version of 16 items.
Conclusions: The hypothetical factor structure was confirmed by the CFA for 16 and 8 items versions. The information contained in abbreviated items allows measuring oral health related quality of life in Chilean children.