Scale of Oral Health Outcomes for Children: A Reliability Generalization Meta-analysis of Cronbach's Alpha

This review aimed to meta-analyze the Cronbach's α of the Scale of Oral Health Outcomes-5 (SOHO-5) questionnaire.

A systematic search of literature was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Web of Science, Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source (EBSCO), and CINAHL using the keywords "Scale of Oral Health Outcomes" OR "SOHO" AND "Child OR Children." Studies reported in English with Cronbach's α for the SOHO questionnaire were included. Screening was done by two trained experts independently. Information on descriptive metadata of the studies, country, sample size, age, sex distribution, target population, language of administration, conditions studied, study setting, study design, patient selection, and Cronbach's α of child and parent versions was collected. The "COSMIN" checklist for internal consistency reliability was used for quality assessment. Heterogeneity was assessed using I ² and Q statistics. The random effects model was used to pool the estimates of untransformed Cronbach's α.

A total of 350 studies were available for the title and abstract screening, and only 34 studies were eligible for full-text screening, of which 12 studies were included for analysis. The overall estimates were 0.83 (95% CI = 0.79-0.86) and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.81-0.90; n = 9; I ² = 96.83%; Q = 95.33) for child- and parent-reported SOHO questionnaires. Meta-regression showed no significant effect of sex on the overall estimates for both child- and parent-reported questionnaires.

The SOHO questionnaire has good internal consistency and reliability and can be used in research and practice.

Pentapati KC, Chenna D, Vijay KS, et al. Scale of Oral Health Outcomes for Children: A Reliability Generalization Meta-analysis of Cronbach's Alpha. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2025;18(6):753-758.