Oral Health-Related Quality of Life Among Sudanese Children Treated for Cleft Lip and Palate.

OBJECTIVE

This study compared the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among children with a cleft lip with or without a cleft palate (CL±P) and a group of their peers. The reliability of the Arabic version of the Child Oral Health Impact Profile Questionnaire (COHIP) was also assessed.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study.

SETTINGS

Cleft clinic in a private dental college in Omdurman City, Sudan.

PATIENTS

In all, 75 children (mean age 11.3 ± 2.5 years) with a history of CL±P and a group of 150 school children without CL±P (mean age 11.4 ± 2.6 years).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Overall and subscale scores on the Arabic version of the COHIP.

RESULTS

Test-retest reliability of COHIP in Arabic was high with an interclass correlation coefficient >0.8. Cronbach α value internal consistency was 0.8 for the total scale and between 0.7 and 0.8 for the subscales. The COHIP score was 89.41 ± 19.97 in children with CL±P and 122.82 ± 9.45 for the control group. Children with CL±P had significantly lower scores on the overall and all subscales when compared to children without CL±P ( ≤ .001). Among the children with CL±P, there were no statistically significant differences on the COHIP based on age and/or gender ( ≥ .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Children with CL±P had a relatively high OHRQoL, which was lower than that of their peers without CL±P in both the overall scale and all subscales. Gender and age differences had no significant impact on the OHRQoL. The COHIP Arabic version showed appropriate reliability.