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Why are we ‘weighting’? An assessment of a self‐weighting approach to measuring oral health‐related quality of life
Author(s) -
McGrath Colman,
Bedi Raman
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1046/j.0301-5661.2003.00110.x
Subject(s) - medicine , oral health , weighting , quality of life (healthcare) , self assessment , gerontology , measure (data warehouse) , dentistry , social psychology , data mining , nursing , psychology , computer science , radiology
– Objective: To determine whether or not self‐weighting at an item level contributes to the performance of an oral health‐related quality‐of‐life measure. Design: Data were collected in two national surveys conducted a month apart, one using the ‘weighted’ measure and the other an ‘unweighted’ version of the UK oral health‐related quality‐of‐life measure. In addition, sociodemographic and self‐reported oral health status were recorded. Results: The UK oral health‐related quality‐of‐life measure discriminated between groups based on age group (<65, 65 and older) and social class (higher and lower) irrespective of the version of the questionnaire used. Both versions also showed significant associations with self‐reported oral health: denture status ( P < 0.01) and number of teeth possessed ( P < 0.01). In addition, both versions demonstrated predictive ability in identifying those in prosthetic need (<20 teeth and without recourse to a denture, P < 0.01). Conclusion: Weighting the UK oral health‐related quality‐of‐life instrument does not improve the psychometric properties of the instrument and thus raises questions about the value of self‐weighting at an item level.