Evaluation of oral health related quality of life with the short forms of the child perceptions questionnaire in a Nigerian population

Objectives: Objective: The study objective was to compare the performance of the complete Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ11-14) and the short versions of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ11-14) in evaluating the Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) of a population of school children.Methods: Two hundred secondary school children aged 11-14 years selected through the multi staged sampling technique from public and private secondary schools in Ile-Ife,completed the CPQ11-14 a generic measure of OHRQoL, the Impact Short Forms (CPQ11-14 -ISF:16 and CPQ11-14 -ISF:8), and the Regression Short Forms (CPQ11-14 -RSF:16 and CPQ11-14 -RSF:8). Criterion validity, construct validity and internal consistency reliability were assessed.Results: The mean score for CPQ11-14 -ISF:16 was 13.7 ± 7.2, CPQ11-14 -RSF:16 had a mean of 14.0 ± 7.2. Mean scores for CPQ11-14 -ISF:8 and CPQ11-14 -RSF:8 were 6.6 ± 3.7 and 6.4 ± 4.0 respectively. The mean scores standardized to 0-100 were higher on the short forms than the original CPQ11–14 except the CPQ11-14-RSF:8, differences were significant between the original CPQ11-14 and CPQ11-14 -ISF:16 and CPQ11-14-RSF:16 (p < 0.05). There were strong significant correlations between scores of all short forms and original CPQ11-14 (0.78-0.93; p < 0.001). All short forms were positively correlated with the ratings of oral health and overall well-being (p< 0.05). Cronbach's Alpha ranged from 0.59 - 0.74.Conclusions: Similar to the complete (CPQ11-14), all short forms detected variability in children's OHRQoL, they demonstrated excellent criterion validity and good internal consistency reliability. The 16 item versions which performed better than the 8 item versions should be the preference for clinical use and epidemiological surveys.Keywords: Children, Oral health, Quality of life, Oral health Related Quality of life, Child Perception Questionnaire (CPQ