Satisfaction with orthodontic treatment: cross-cultural adaptation and validation of an instrument for the Brazilian Portuguese language

Abstract

Objective: To cross-culturally adapt into the Brazilian Portuguese and evaluate the psychometric properties of an instrument for assessing the satisfaction of parents/guardians regarding their sons’/daughters’ orthodontic treatment. Methods: Translations of the instrument from English, pre-test and evaluation of validity and reliability of the Brazilian Portuguese version were performed. The questionnaire has 25 items distributed across 3 subscales (process, psychosocial effect and outcome). Eighty-three parents/guardians of children/adolescents who had completed orthodontic treatment participated. Descriptive statistics and floor and ceiling effects were calculated. Internal consis-tency, stability (interval of three weeks), convergent construct validity and discriminant construct validity were determined. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) assessed dimensionality. Results: Among the 83 parents/guardians, 58 (69.9%) were mothers and 25 (30.1%) were fathers of children/adolescents. In the questionnaire’s total score and the three subscales scores, an acceptable percentage (≤15%) of participants achieved the maximum score (ceiling effect). In the total questionnaire score and in the three subscales scores, no participant achieved the minimum score (floor ef-fect). Cronbach’s α coefficient for the total score was 0.72 (internal con-sistency). Intra-class correlation coefficient for the total score was 0.71 (stability). The questionnaire’s total score presented large Pearson correlation coefficient (>0.50) with the three subscales too (construct va-lidity). Female parents/guardians had significantly higher scores in the psychosocial effect (p=0.013) and in the treatment outcome (p=0.037) subscales, compared to male parents/guardians (discriminant validi-ty). EFA and CFA confirmed dimensionality in a three-factor solution. Conclusions: The final obtained version is valid and reliable to be used in Brazilian populations.