Do we need more than one Child Perceptions Questionnaire for children and adolescents?
© Foster Page et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013
Received: 8 January 2013
Accepted: 4 June 2013
Do we need more than one Child Perceptions Questionnaire for children and adolescents?
© Foster Page et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013
Received: 8 January 2013
Accepted: 4 June 2013
Published: 12 June 2013
In dentistry, measures of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) provide essential information for assessing treatment needs, making clinical decisions and evaluating interventions, services and programmes. The two most common measures used to examine child OHRQoL today are the Child Perceptions Questionnaire at two ages, 8–10 and 11–14 (CPQ8-10, CPQ11-14). The reliability and validity of these two versions have been demonstrated together with that (more recently) of the short-form 16-item impact version of the CPQ11-14. This study set out to examine the reliability and validity of the Child Oral Health Quality of Life Questionnaires (COHQOL) instruments the CPQ8-10 and impact short-form CPQ11-14 in 5-to-8-year-old New Zealand children, and to determine whether a single measure for children aged 5–14 is feasible.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted of 5-to-8-year-old children attending for dental treatment in community clinics in 2011. Children were examined for dental caries, with OHRQoL measured using the CPQ8-10 and short-form CPQ11-14. Construct validity was evaluated by comparing mean scale scores across ordinal categories of caries experience; correlational construct validity was assessed by comparing mean CPQ scores across children’s global ratings of oral health and well-being.
The 183 children (49.7% female) aged 5 to 8 years who took part in the study represent a 98.4% participation rate. The overall mean dmft was 6.0 (SD, 2.0 range 1 to 13). Both questionnaire versions detected differences in the impact of dental caries on quality of life, with the greatest scores in the expected direction. Both versions showed higher scores among those with poorer oral health. There was a very strong and positive correlation between CPQ11-14 scores and CPQ8-10 scores (Pearsons’s r = 0.98; P < 0.01).
The performance of both versions of the COHQOL measures (CPQ8-10 and short-form CPQ11-14) appears to be acceptable in this younger age group, and this work represents the first stage in validating this questionnaire in a younger age group. It also further confirms that younger children are capable of providing their own perceptions of oral health impacts. The acceptability of the short-from CPQ11-14 in this younger age group lends support to its use in children between ages 5 and 14.
KeywordsChildren Indexes Health status indicators Validity
Dental caries is the most common chronic childhood condition afflicting New Zealanders. It is known to affect children’s development, school performance, and behaviour, as well as affecting their families and the wider community [1, 2]. This problem is not unique to New Zealand but is a major health issue affecting children in many countries. Increasingly, investigations of oral diseases and disorders are using clinical disease and psychosocial measures concurrently, recognising the importance of using health-related quality of life evaluations in clinical studies. This has led to a growth in the number and use of condition-specific instruments. In dentistry, measures of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) provide essential information for assessing treatment needs, making clinical decisions and evaluating interventions, services and programmes. Measures currently available for children include the Child Oral Health Quality of Life (COHQOL) questionnaires [5–8], the Child Oral Health Impact Profile (COHIP), the Child-Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (Child-OIDP, the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS), and the Scale of Oral Health Outcomes (SOHO-5).
To date, the COHQOL has been most frequently used; it is a set of scales measuring the negative effects of oral and orofacial disorders on the well-being of 6-14-year-olds and their families. The scales comprise the Child Perceptions Questionnaire at two ages, 8–10 and 11–14 (CPQ8-10, CPQ11-14), the Parental-Caregiver Perceptions Questionnaire (P-CPQ) and the Family Impact Scale (FIS). The Child Perceptions Questionnaire at age 6–8 was never developed or validated however, the reliability and validity of the two CPQ versions has been demonstrated [8, 13], together with that (more recentl