Evaluation of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale in an Australian preschool child population

P. Arrow, E. Klobas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)375-381
Number of pages7
JournalAustralian Dental Journal
Volume60
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2015
Externally publishedYes

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