Validity and reliability of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP) frequency scale: a cross-sectional study of adolescents in Uganda

1146 adolescents (mean age 15.8, response rate 87%) attending secondary schools in Kampala (urban) and Lira (rural) completed a survey instrument designed to measure subjective oral health indicators including the eight-item OIDP frequency scores. A clinical examination was conducted among 372 students (mean age 16.3, response rate 72%) and caries was assessed following the World Health Organisation criteria (1997).62% of the students experienced at least one oral impact during the 6 months preceding the survey. Cronbach's alpha for the OIDP frequency items was 0.91 and the corrected item-total correlation ranged from 0.62 to 0.75. Discriminant and construct validity were demonstrated in that the OIDP scores varied systematically in the expected direction with missing teeth and self-report indicators of oral health status, respectively. Socio-demographics and dental attendance did not predict OIDP through interaction with clinical indicators but varied systematically and independently with OIDP frequency scores in the multivariate analysis.the OIDP frequency score have acceptable psychometric properties in the context of an oral health survey among Ugandan adolescents. Some evidence of the importance of social and personal characteristics in shaping adolescents' responses to oral disorders was provided.In response to the growing recognition of quality of life measurement in health care, socio-dental indicators, designed to assess the functional and psychological outcomes of oral disorders, have been developed and tested in various populations [1,2]. Most of the research on oral health related quality of life has been performed with adults and older people and there are only few studies from outside North-America and Europe [1-3,5,6]. Uncertainty remains as to the use of socio-dental indicators in youth populations generally and to their applicability in non-western cultural settings, specifically.The Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP) scale [5] assesses impact