The caries impacts and experiences questionnaire for Turkish children by age groups'

The Caries Impacts and Experiences Questionnaire for Children (CARIES-QC) assess children's effects of dental caries on their quality of life. This study aimed to determine the scale's Turkish version (CARIES-QC/T) validity and reliability according to age groups and to create the scale that is specific to selected age groups.

Children were divided up into 3 age groups (5-7, 8-10 and 11-14 ages). Explanatory factor analysis (EFA) was used in the concept validation process. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used for cross-cultural validity. For each group, test-retest analyses were performed on 20 children. Inter-question correlation and Cronbach's alpha were used to examine internal consistency.

A total of 360 children (mean age; 9.04, 56.1% girls,) 120 children in each group, participated in the study. Questions 7 and 12 for the 5-7 age group, Questions 4 and 7 for the 8-10 and 11-14 age groups were excluded from the analysis (according to EFA results; factor loads < 0.30). Three modified CARIES-QC/T scales structures with a total of 10 questions were developed for the age groups of 5-7, 8-10, and 11-14.

Some questions on the Caries-QC/T scale should be eliminated, it was found when it was evaluated for age specificity. Although the results of the Caries-QC scale studies to be carried out in different societies and age groups vary, the high sample size in this study and the statistically strong results showed that the Caries-QC/T scale forms that we adapted could be used by the specified age groups.