Development and Validation of Parental Questionnaire on Risk Factors for Early Childhood Caries for “Happy Smiles Program”
Lydia Thenmozhi Nagarajan, Imran Pasha Mohammed, Rekha P. Shenoy, Junaid Junaid, Supriya Amanna, Apoorva Kotian, Pramada PrabhakarAbstract
Background:
Early childhood caries (ECC) is a significant public health concern, particularly among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. The condition affects infants and preschool children, leading to pain, infection, and impaired quality of life. Until now, there is no comprehensive parental questionnaire available for ECC which covers on feeding practices, child oral hygiene practices, and parental opinion on oral health collectively according to the researcher’s knowledge. Hence, the development and validation of the parental ECC questionnaire may be helpful for further studies. The aim of this study is to develop and validate the content of a parental questionnaire of ECC by subject experts.
Objectives:
The objectives were to develop a parental questionnaire on child feeding practices and oral hygiene behavior and to validate the content of the parental questionnaire on ECC by subject experts, using Content Validity Index (CVI).
Materials and Methods:
A 13-item questionnaire is developed and the content is scored on a scale of 5 for its relevance. The answered questionnaire will be checked for the Item-level CVI (I-CVI) using the formula I-CVI = (Agreed item)/(number of experts) for each item. The questionnaire was distributed to the panel of experts. A common Likert scale is used for this, often ranging from 1 (not relevant) to 4 (highly relevant). The ratings from each expert for every item are collected. For each item, the I-CVI is calculated.
Results:
The questionnaire demonstrated excellent reliability (α = 0.94381), indicating it is a consistent and dependable tool.
Conclusion:
The developed questionnaire demonstrated excellent content validity and internal consistency, making it a reliable tool for assessing parental risk factors associated with early childhood caries in community-based settings.