Validation of the French version of COHIP-SF-19 among 12-years children in New Caledonia

Abstract

Background Assessment of oral health-related quality of life is now associated to clinical indicators in epidemiological studies. This study aimed at validating the French Short Form of the Child Oral Health Impact Profile (COHIP-SF-19) and assessing the impacts of oral diseases among schoolchildren in New Caledonia (NC). Methods A sample of 12-years-old children (n = 971) was selected in 2019 in NC using a random, stratified, and clustered sampling technique. Children filled the French COHIP-SF-19 questionnaire. Information on sociodemographic characteristics, oral hygiene habits, perception of oral health problems were also collected through self-administered questionnaires or from the schools’ database. Dental status (dental caries, gingival status, and dental functional units) was clinically recorded at school by four calibrated examiners. Cronbach’s alpha and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated. Kruskal–Wallis tests and spearman correlations were used along with multilevel mixed models taking into account the cluster and examiner effects. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and sensitivity analyses were performed. Results Among the 693 children examined, 557 children were included. Oral diseases were frequent in the study population 40% had dental caries and 55% presented gingivitis. The COHIP scores ranged from 7 to 76 (57.9 ± 9.96) with 96.4% of the children having experienced oral health problems, 81.7% reporting functional impacts and 90.5% socio-emotional impacts. Overall, the French COHIP-SF-19 showed satisfactory psychometric characteristics. Internal consistency was high (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.80) and reproducibility excellent (ICC = 0.9). Discriminant and concurrent validity were adequate. Indeed, children with less optimal social situation, impaired dental status, declaring severe dental problems or difficulties in accessing oral health care showed lower COHIP-SF-19 scores. Factor analyses suggested a four-component structure with identification of a new domain (self -image) and changes in the repartition of the items within the original domains. Sensitivity analyses showed similar results for children with partial or complete answers in the COHIP questionnaire. Conclusions The French COHIP-SF-19 showed satisfactory psychometric characteristics and allowed to identify the high impacts of oral diseases in New Caledonian children, namely for socially deprived children.

Reflection on patients’ experience with orthodontic appliances wear and its impact on oral health related quality of life: observational comparative study

“…Thiruvenkadam et al [ 26 ] evaluated the oral health-associated quality of life of children who sought orthodontic treatment, and found no statistically significant difference in COHIP SF scores between girls and boys and The results of the current study agrees as the only positive correlation was observed between oral health scores and sex in the fixed appliance group at base line where the scores were higher in females than in males. In contrast, the COHIP-SF-19 levels were lower in girls than in boys in the New Caledonia COHIP-SF-19 validation study while, the Japanese COHIP-SF-19 validation research indicated greater results for girls [ 25 , 27 ]. Previous research that used the Chinese COHIP-SF 19 noticed no gender differences in total or socio-emotional well-being subscores; however, females had higher functional well-being and oral health subscores than males [ 28 ].…”

Changes in oral health-related quality of life before and after dental treatment in 8–12-year-old Costa Rican schoolchildren

“…In accordance with our findings, validation studies of the COHIP-SF-19 have reported these two items were the most unanswered questions. It has been suggested that these two items are the only positively worded questions, which could potentially confuse participants (62).…”

Oral Health-Related Quality of Life in a Paediatric Population in the Dominican Republic

“…The COHIP (Community Oral Health Improvement Plan), which was originally developed to assess "oral-facial well-being" across a range of ages (8-15 years) and ethnicities [19][20][21][22], is also a comprehensive and well-validated questionnaire for determining children's OHRQoL. It contains 34 questions and 5 subscales (oral health, functional well-being, socio-emotional well-being, school environment, and self-image).…”

“…For the interpretation of this questionnaire, we have, on the one hand, to analyze the final score of the questionnaire. On the other hand, we must also analyze the average score of each dimension and the score of each question individually [19][20][21][22][23][24].…”