Reliability of a sugar consumption questionnaire for rural Haiti.
OBJECTIVE
Studies of dental caries should account for sugar consumption as a potential confounder or effect modifier of other exposure-caries associations. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of a sugar consumption score for rural Haiti through correlation of test-retest scores derived from a structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire.


METHODS
A structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire of sugar consumption was developed for rural Haiti to achieve contextual validity. The resulting questionnaire had two parts; one part captures the child's consumption of sugar products frequency; the second part captures sugar additions to the child's food preparation. A test-retest, one week apart, was conducted on a sample of 30 mother-child pairs (children ages 9-17). Test-retest correlations and paired t-testing was conducted to assess the questionnaire's reliability.


RESULTS
All test-retest (Part 1, children's questions; Part 2, mother's questions; the combined scores) had Pearson product correlation coefficients of 0.7 or greater, respectively. All test-retest scores had paired t-test p-values3 0.95.


CONCLUSIONS
A reliable, contextually valid relative sugar consumption questionnaire specific for rural Haiti is presented. The questionnaire and methodology employed in its development and testing may have utility for dental caries researchers in investigations in less developed countries.
Psoter
Walter J
WJ
New York University College of Dentistry, Department of Epidemiology & Health Promotion, 345 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010, USA. wp9@nyu.edu
Gebrian
Bette
B
Katz
Ralph V
RV
D000293:Adolescent; D019422:Dietary Sucrose / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005260:Female; D006205:Haiti; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D019422:Dietary Sucrose