Oral health-related quality of life of children with craniofacial conditions.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of the Dutch Child Oral Health Impact Profile (COHIP), assessing the level of concordance between parents and children. The internal consistency and the predictive validity of the COHIP for self-reported general health were examined.

METHODS: Sample size was 35 pairs of parents and children age 11 to 14 with craniofacial conditions. Cronbach alphas were calculated and the level of concordance between parents and children was studied using t tests and intraclass correlations. Predictive validity was assessed using Pearson correlations and linear regression analyses.

RESULTS: The COHIP and its subscales, except for one, had satisfactory to high Cronbach alphas (.59 to .94). Parents and children did not differ significantly. Correlations between parents and children were high (.62 to .91). Only "Oral symptoms" proved to be a significant predictor of general health, but only in the parent sample.

CONCLUSIONS: In spite of the high level of concordance found, proxy reports have to be considered complementary to the reports of the children themselves. The Dutch version of the COHIP performs adequately, but could use some further psychometric evaluation and revision. It does not seem advisable to use the subscales separately as predictors in the same regression model, since they are strongly intercorrelated. For use in craniofacial patients, further validation is needed on a larger sample and some items need to be revised or removed. Finally, given the small number of cases, conclusions must be drawn with caution.