Translation and validation of the French version of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire for children aged from 8 to 10 years old (CPQ (8-10))

BACKGROUND: The Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ) belongs to a set of questionnaires measuring Child Oral Health Quality of Life (COHQOL). The CPQ is used to collect the perceptions of children on the impact of oral diseases on their quality of life. This cross-sectional study was aimed to translate the CPQ(8-10) into French language and evaluate its psychometric properties. METHODS: The translation process complied with international recommendations. The final French version was tested on children aged 8-10 years old attending consultations in a Parisian public hospital and divided into three groups: children with oral-facial clefts, children with dental anomalies linked to a rare disease other than clefts and children presumed to be healthy and without anomalies. The internal consistency relating to the reliability of CPQ(8-10) was evaluated by Cronbach’s alpha. The intra-class correlation was used to measure reproducibility at the test-retest level. Construct validity was evaluated by Spearman’s correlation and tested using factor analysis. The discriminant validity was assessed using Kruskall Wallis test. Criterion validity was calculated using Spearman’s correlation. RESULTS: One hundred seventy-six children participated in this study. During the translation process, minor changes were made. The French version showed good reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.81 for the total scale. The ICC of the test-retest was excellent (=0.90) demonstrating good reproducibility. The construct validity was acceptable with a statistically significant correlation between the scores of the French-CPQ(8-10) and the evaluation of oral health (r = 0. 381 and p < 0.001) and its impact on oral health quality of life (r = 0.363 and p < 0.001). The loading weights obtained in the Exploratory Factor Analysis showed that this model revealed seven factors with eigenvalue greater than 1, explaining the 63,89% of the cumulative variance. The differences observed between the scores of the study groups revealed good discriminant validity. Criterion validity was supported by significant association between CPQ scores and pain. CONCLUSION: The French-CPQ(8-10) is reliable and valid for use with the children of this age group. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12955-018-0907-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.