Translation and validation of a Chinese language version of the ECOHIS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS) is an oral-health related quality of life measure. This study aimed to adapt the ECOHIS for pre-school children in a Chinese speaking community and to investigate its psychometric properties (validity and reliability). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A Chinese language version of the ECOHIS was derived through a forward-backward translation and tested for content validity among a focus group. A convenience sample of pre-school children (n = 111) was recruited (included sub-samples with early childhood caries and caries-free children). Parents of the children self-completed the derived Chinese-ECOHIS measure. Validity of the measure was assessed by investigating the relationship between dental caries status and the Chinese-ECOHIS scores (construct and criterion validity). A subsample of the parents repeated the measure to facilitate test-retest reliability assessment. RESULTS: A Chinese version of ECOHIS was derived with minor modification to the original version. Chinese-ECOHIS scores were associated with caries experience (dmft) (r = 0.66, P < 0.05) supporting convergent validity. In addition, variations in ECOHIS scores were apparent with respect to the caries and caries-free groups (P < 0.001), supporting the measure’s ability to distinguish between patient groups. Cronbach’s alpha values (internal reliability) for total ECOHIS score were 0.91 and the intra-class correlation coefficient value (test-retest reliability) was 0.64. CONCLUSION: The Chinese version of the ECOHIS that was developed demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability, indicating that these findings can successfully access the oral health-related quality of life of pre-school children in Chinese speaking communities.