WHO's oral health assessment questionnaire for adult: psychometric properties of the Arabic version

Objective It has been well recognized that, oral health is more than beautiful teeth. Mouth has been considered to be the mirror of whole body, as much as a healthy mouth means healthy body. Given the epidemic status of oral diseases, monitoring the oral health status is essential for oral health promotion. The World Health Organization (WHO) have provided standard epidemiological survey methodology that requires systematic oral examination, data collection and recording system. Language barrier may be a reason to hinder extensive use of such important instruments in countries where English language is not predominantly used. Therefore, our aim was to standardize an Arabic translation of the WHO instrument for wide spreed use in many nations around the world. This would improve the standardization and quality of the oral health data in Arabic speaking countries. Methods Initially, the forward translation of WHO Oral Health Assessment questionnaire for adults was conducted from English to Arabic language. Backward translation of Arabic version to English language was done by professional English translator and the result was compared with original text to identify differences. A nominal group technique (NGT) was used in order to obtain expert's opinion from a group of ten specialists who also helped to culturally adapt the questionnaire. Results The content validity index and ratio was calculated. After few recomended adjustments the final Arabic version was produced. After removing one question the overall impact score of the questionnaire improved considerably to acceptable level. When computing the internal consistency coefficient, it was found to be 0.88 for the subscales (which means good to excellent). Conclusion The results of this study prove that, the Arabic version of the WHO Oral Health Survey Questionnaire is reliable instrument to be used for oral health evaluation of adults among Arabic speaking populations.