The German version of Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS-G): translation, reliability, and validity

Abstract

Objectives: The aims of this study were to develop a German version of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS), a measure of oral health-related quality of life in pre-school-age children, and to assess the instrument’s reliability and validity. Methods: The original English version of the ECOHIS questionnaire was translated into German (ECOHIS-G) by a forward-backward translation method. A total of 336 children aged 0 to 5 years and their caregivers who were recruited at the Department of Paediatric Dentistry in Vienna, Austria, participated in this study. The caregivers completed the ECOHIS-G and their children were clinically examined for the presence of dental caries and plaque accumulation. Reliability of ECOHIS was investigated in a subsample of 59 subjects after 3 weeks. Results: Questionnaire summary score test-retest reliability was 0.81 (intraclass correlation coefficient, 95% confidence interval (CI) ranging from 0.68 to 0.89) and internal consistency was 0.83 (Cronbach’s alpha, lower limit of the 95% CI 0.80). Validity of the ECOHIS-G questionnaire was supported by correlation coefficients with global ratings of oral health of − 0.42 (95% CI − 0.45 to − 0.35) and overall well-being of − 0.29 (95% CI − 0.34 to − 0.22) which met the expectations. Mean ECOHIS-G scores were statistically significantly higher in children with caries compared with caries-free children. Conclusions: The German version of the ECHOHIS was found to be reliable and valid in children aged 0 to 5 years. Clinical relevance: These findings enable assessments of oral health-related quality of life in German-speaking pre-school children.