Item Profile Supplement Summary Score Information in Short Oral Health-Related Quality of Life Instruments

Area of Science:

• Oral Health Research
• Psychometrics
• Quality of Life Measurement

Background:

• Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) is crucial for assessing oral conditions.
• Abbreviated OHRQoL instruments may mask specific impacts of oral diseases due to similar summary scores.
• Understanding these nuances is vital for accurate patient assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare summary scores and item prevalence profiles of two short-form Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) instruments.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Hungarian OHIP-14 and OHIP-5.
• To identify differences in OHRQoL components between surgical and operative dental patient groups.

Main Methods:

• Assessed psychometric properties (reliability, validity) of the Hungarian OHIP-14 and OHIP-5.
• Compared summary scores and item prevalence between patients undergoing surgical procedures (n=30) and operative dental procedures (n=22).
• Analyzed specific item differences using statistical significance tests.

Main Results:

• Both OHIP-14 and OHIP-5 demonstrated acceptable psychometric performance.
• Significant differences in "Taste worse" and "Painful aching" were found between patient groups using OHIP-14.
• Only "Painful aching" showed significant differences between groups when using OHIP-5.

Conclusions:

• While summary scores offer a general OHRQoL assessment, item profiles highlight clinically significant variations between patient populations.
• Integrating both summary scores and item profiles enhances the interpretability of short OHIP instruments.
• This combined approach supports more precise clinical interventions and research endeavors in oral health.