The Network Psychometric Properties of the Temporomandibular Joint Disorder Questionnaire Among Australian Adults
Abanish Singh, Sonia Nath, Lisa Jamieson, Pedro Henrique Ribeiro SantiagoABSTRACT
Background
Australian adults have at least one symptom of temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), and those who experience TMD report lower oral health‐related quality of life. While a self‐administered TMD questionnaire can be a valuable screening instrument for initial identification of disease/conditions, to the best of our knowledge, there are no comprehensively validated TMD questionnaires for the Australian population.
Objective
To evaluate the psychometric properties of the TMD questionnaire using data imputation and novel network models.
Methods
This is a secondary analysis of data from the National Study of Adult Oral Health 2017–18. The sample included 2423 participants who responded to the 12‐item TMD questionnaire. Descriptive statistics included demographic characteristics and the TMD distribution of adult Australians. The analytical steps include: (1) model estimation, (2) Unique Variable Analysis, (3) Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA), (4) model fit, (5) criterion validity and (6) reliability.
Results
After removing poorly performing items, EGA revealed that a 9‐item TMD questionnaire had excellent item stability, substantive network loadings and mixed but acceptable model fit ( X 2 (12): 1045.91, CFI: 0.970, RMSEA: 0.077, 90% CI: 0.073–0.081, SRMR: 0.027). The reliability was good ( α = 0.8; Ω = 0.8). Finding also supported known‐groups validity by sex (Risk Ratios ranging from 1.44 to 4.43) and criterion validity according to quality of life ( r = −0.26) and age ( r = −0.21).
Conclusions
This study provided evidence on the validity and reliability of the 9‐item temporomandibular joint questionnaire for evaluating temporomandibular joint disorder among Australian Adults. The TMD questionnaire is readily available, which can be a practical measure of self‐reported TMD symptoms for a population‐based initial assessment or epidemiological research.