Development and validation of a measure of pediatric oral health-related quality of life: the POQL.

OBJECTIVE

To develop a brief measure of oral health-related quality of life (OHQL) in children and demonstrate its reliability and validity in a diverse population.

METHODS

We administered the initial 20-item Pediatric Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (POQL) to children (Child Self-Report) and parents (Parent Report on Child) from diverse populations in both school-based and clinic-based settings. Clinical oral health status was measured on a subset of children. We used factor analysis to determine the underlying scales and then reduced the measure to 10 items based on several considerations. Multitrait analysis on the resulting 10-item POQL was used to reaffirm the discrimination of scales and assess the measure's internal consistency and interscale correlations. We established discriminant and convergent validity with clinical status, perceived oral health and responses on the PedsQL, and determined sensitivity to change with children undergoing ECC surgical repair.

RESULTS

Factor analysis returned a four-scale solution for the initial items--Physical Functioning, Role Functioning, Social Functioning, and Emotional Functioning. The reduced items represented the same four scales--two each on Physical and Role and three each on Social and Emotional. Good reliability and validity were shown for the POQL as a whole and for each of the scales.

CONCLUSIONS

The POQL is a valid and reliable measure of OHQL for use in preschool and school-aged children, with high utility for both clinical assessments and large-scale population studies.