Cross-cultural adaptation of a questionnaire assessing the child and parents’ expectations of orthodontic treatment in Brazil

INTRODUCTION: The Sayers and Newton questionnaire was developed in England to assess the child’s and parent’s expectations about orthodontic treatment. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to carry out the cross-cultural adaptation of the questionnaire for the Brazilian Portuguese language, to test its reliability, and to compare patients’ and their parents’ expectations of orthodontic treatment. METHODS: After translation and cross-cultural adaptation, the questionnaire was applied to 98 patients (12-14 years), who had been referred for treatment, and their caregivers. The internal consistency of the instrument was assessed by Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient and the test-retest reliability, by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). RESULTS: Internal reliability was confirmed by a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.75. Test-retest reliability revealed satisfactory reproducibility (ICC = 0.85). The results showed some significant differences between the expectations of the patients and their caregivers (p < 0.05). There were no significant gender differences (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The process of cross-cultural adaptation of the Sayers and Newton questionnaire for the Brazilian Portuguese was concluded. This study demonstrated that this instrument is reliable and applicable to assess the child’s and parent’s expectations about orthodontic treatment in Brazil, and it has acceptable psychometric properties.