Abstract
Introduction
Children in Cambodia are known to have a high burden of dental caries (Chu et al., 2008; Durward and Todd, 1991; Shidara et al., 2007) and very little access to dental care. This thesis examines the validity of an Oral-Health-Related-Quality-of-Life (OHRQoL) instrument for characterising the dental caries experience of Cambodian children.
Methods
The CPQ8-10 and the CPQ11-14 16 item short-form (CPQ11-14) were cross-culturally adapted for testing. Eight-to-14-year-old children were recruited from those attending mobile dental clinics run by the One-2-One Charitable Trust through various provinces of Cambodia. Each participant was interviewed by a trained interviewer using the cross-culturally adapted instruments. He/she then underwent an intra-oral examination to record the clinical manifestations of dental caries using the DMF and the PUFA indices. Following this, data were analysed using SPSS version 17.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, USA).
Results
The sample comprised 430 participants with approximately equal representation by age group (the 8-10 age group and the 11-14 age group) and sex. There were statistically significant differences in mean CPQ8-10 and CPQ11-14 scores and impact prevalence by global item response, the presence of caries and the presence of pulpally involved teeth. There were also significant positive correlations between instrument scale scores and caries severity measures. Moreover, the Cronbach’s alpha values for each of the scales and subscales were acceptable. In the 8-10 age group, there was a very strong correlation between the CPQ11-14 scores and the CPQ8-10 scores and the distribution of responses from the two instruments.
Discussion
The participants in this sample had a mean DMF score similar to that reported in the 2011 Cambodian National Oral Health Survey; however, the DMF scores were higher than those seen in other validation samples for the CPQ8-10 and CPQ11-14, apart from the Northland (New Zealand) sample. None of the other validation studies used the PUFA index. The CPQ8-10 was a sound OHRQoL measure in the 8-10 age group; the CPQ11-14¬ was a sound OHRQoL measure in the 11-14 age group and the 8-10 age groups.
Conclusion
The cross-culturally adapted version of the CPQ11-14 was a sound measure of OHRQoL across both age groups; therefore, it could be used for Cambodian children between the ages of eight and 14. Further investigation into the instrument’s test-retest reliability and responsiveness would add to knowledge of its properties and validity.