The PedsQL™ Oral Health Scale in Iranian children: reliability and validity

Abstract

Objective: The primary objective of the study was to translate and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ (PedsQL™) Oral Health Scale in over 1000 Iranian children.

Methods: A standard forward and backward translation procedure was used to convert the US English dialect version of the PedsQL™ Oral Health Scale into the Iranian language (Persian). The Iranian version of the PedsQL™ Oral Health Scale, in combination with the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales, was then subsequently administered to 1053 Iranian children and 1026 parents. The reliability of the PedsQL™ Oral Health Scale was evaluated using internal consistency and test-retest methods. Known-groups discriminant validity, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the Oral Health and the four Generic Core Scales combined, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the Oral Health Scale alone were conducted. The Benjamini-Hochberg procedure was used to correct P-values for multiple comparisons.

Results: Good to excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliabilities were demonstrated. The PedsQL™ Oral Health Scale demonstrated discriminant validity for subgroups of children across different decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) index categories and gender. The EFA supported the a priori factor model of the combined five scales. The CFA analysis confirmed the unidimensional factor structure of the Oral Health Scale.

Conclusions: The PedsQL™ Oral Health Scale demonstrated excellent psychometric properties in combination with the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales. These five scales combined can be utilized to assess the multidimensional oral-health-related quality of life of Iranian children.