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Evaluation of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale in an Australian preschool child population
Author(s) -
Arrow P,
Klobas E
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
australian dental journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.701
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1834-7819
pISSN - 0045-0421
DOI - 10.1111/adj.12236
Subject(s) - early childhood caries , cronbach's alpha , early childhood , discriminant validity , oral health , medicine , scale (ratio) , population , reliability (semiconductor) , convergent validity , clinical psychology , pediatrics , psychology , developmental psychology , psychometrics , family medicine , environmental health , internal consistency , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics
Background Early childhood caries has significant impacts on children and their families. The Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale ( ECOHIS ) is an instrument for capturing the complex dimensions of preschool children's oral health. This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the instrument among Australian preschool children. Methods Parents/children dyads (n = 286) participating in a treatment trial on early childhood caries completed the scale at baseline, and 33 parents repeated the questionnaire 2–3 weeks later. The validity and reliability of the ECOHIS was determined using tests for convergent and discriminant validity, internal reliability of the instrument and test–retest reliability. Results Scale impacts were strongly correlated with global oral health ratings (Spearman's correlations; r = 0.51, total score; r = 0.43, child impact; and r = 0.49, family impact; p < 0.001). The scale was significantly associated with children's caries experience, p < 0.001. Cronbach's alpha values were 0.87, 0.89 and 0.74 for the total, the child and the family domains, respectively. Test–retest reliability was 0.92, 0.89 and 0.78 for the total, child and family domains, respectively. Conclusions The scale demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability for assessing the impact of early childhood caries among Australian preschool children.