Psychometric properties of the S panish version of the short‐form C hild P erceptions Q uestionnaire for 11‐14‐year‐olds for assessing oral health needs of children

Objective To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the short‐form of the Children Perceived Oral Health Questionnaire aimed at assessing child's oral health‐related quality of life of children aged 11‐14 years (CPQ 11‐14 ). A secondary objective was to explore its screening qualities for evaluating oral health needs and immediate referral for treatment.Methods This cross‐sectional study was conducted during August‐December of 2011 in Monterrey, Mexico ( n  = 303 schoolchildren). The CPQ 11‐14 consisted of 16 items and 2 key questions. Dental caries was diagnosed by visual‐tactile exam, and malocclusion by WHO index. We estimated Cronbach's alpha and Spearman's correlations and compared rank scores with the Mann‐Whitney test. As we did not have a preestablished cutoff point score, we identified one with the best combination of sensitivity/specificity values using receiver operating characteristic curves.Results Internal consistency was 0.85. Correlation was 0.40 ( P  < 0.001) between CPQ 11‐14 scores and self‐perceived oral health rating and 0.51 ( P  < 0.001) between CPQ 11‐14 score and general well‐being rating (concurrent validity). The mean score was 11.6 ± 8.6 for children in need of oral care and 8.1 ± 7.2 for those not in need of oral care ( P  < 0.01; discriminating validity). Sensitivity was 79.4% and specificity 48.7%; the positive and negative predictive values were 81.6% and 45.2%, respectively.Conclusions The Spanish version short‐form CPQ 11‐14 registered acceptable psychometric properties. We were able to identify a cutoff point score with acceptable sensitivity and positive predictive value but still needs future validation before generalizing its use.