Reliability and validity of two oral health related quality of life measures in Myanmar adolescents.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess two Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHQoL) measures and the levels of oral impacts among 14-year-old students in Yangon Division, Myanmar. DESIGN: Cross-sectional validation study. Setting High schools in Yangon Division. PARTICIPANTS: A multi-stage stratified random cluster sample of 543 students. OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence, extent (number of impacts) and total score as recorded using the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP) and the short form of the Oral Heath Impact Profile (OHIP-14). Psychometric measures of validity and reliability. RESULTS: 15.8% and 53.0% of participants had an impact using OIDP and OHIP-14 respectively. The extents and total scores were low among those with impacts. Both measures had good reliability (Cronbach's alpha 0.72 for OIDP and 0.86 for OHIP-14). The presence of dental caries was associated with summary measures of OHIP-14 but not with OIDP. The most frequent cause of impact was dental caries. CONCLUSIONS: Both OIDP and OHIP-14 had reasonable reliability but OHIP-14 had superior construct validity. OHIP-14 appears to be more useful as an instrument to discriminate between groups with and without impacts in population surveys.