Development of Danish version of child oral-health-related quality of life questionnaires (CPQ(8–10 )and CPQ(11–14))

BACKGROUND: The Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ) is a self-reported questionnaire developed to measure oral health-related quality of life in children. The CPQ aims to improve the description of children's oral health, while taking into consideration the importance of psychological aspects in the concept of health. The CPQ exists in two versions: the CPQ(8–10 )for children aged 8–10 years and the CPQ(11–14 )for those aged 11–14 years. The aim of this study was to develop a Danish version of the CPQ(8–10 )and the CPQ(11–14 )and to evaluate its validity for use among Danish-speaking children. METHODS: The instruments were translated from English into Danish in accordance with a recommended translation procedure. Afterwards, they were tested among children aged 8–10 (n = 120) and 11–14 years (n = 225). The validity was expressed by the correlation between overall CPQ scores and i) self-reported assessment of the influence of oral conditions on everyday life (not at all, very little, some, a lot, very much) and ii) the self-reported rating of oral health. Furthermore, groups of children with assumed decreased oral health-related quality of life were compared with children with healthy oral conditions. Finally, we examined the internal consistency. RESULTS: The correlation between overall CPQ scores and global assessments of the influence of oral conditions on everyday life showed Spearman correlation coefficients of 0.45, P < 0.001 for CPQ(8–10 )and 0.50, P < 0.001 for CPQ(11–14). The correlation between overall CPQ scores and the self-reported rating of oral health showed Spearman correlation coefficients of 0.45, P < 0.001 for CPQ(8–10 )and 0.17, P = 0.010 for CPQ(11–14). The median overall CPQ(8–10 )scores were 7 for individuals with healthy oral conditions, 5 for individuals with cleft lip and palate, and 15 for individuals with rare oral diseases. The median overall CPQ(11–14 )scores were 9 for individuals with healthy oral conditions, 9 for individuals with cleft lip and palate, 17.0 for individuals with rare oral diseases, and 22.0 for individuals with fixed orthodontic appliances. There were statistically significant differences between the groups of children with healthy oral conditions and each of the subgroups, except for children with cleft lip and palate. Chronbach'α were 0.82 for CPQ(8–10 )and 0.87 for CPQ(11–14). CONCLUSION: The results of this study reveal that the Danish CPQ(8–10 )and CPQ(11–14), seem to be valid instruments for measuring oral health-related quality of life in children although its ability to discriminate between children with cleft lip and palate and healthy children seem to be limited.