[Instruments for evaluating oral health knowledge, attitudes and practice for parents /caregivers of small children].
OBJECTIVE
Designing three instruments for evaluating oral health knowledge, attitudes and practice in parents/caregivers of low social-economic status 0-5 year-olds. Evaluating the instruments' reliability in terms of internal consistency and analysing items.


METHODS
Three instruments were constructed for evaluating low social-economic status 0-5 year-olds' parents/caregivers' oral health knowledge, attitudes and practice in the municipality of Usaquén , Bogotá , Colombia . 47 parents/caregivers were given a test establishing the instrument's reliability in terms of internal consistency and the adults' level of knowledge, attitudes and practice. A sub-sample was qualitatively analysed (content verification and understanding). Reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Items were analysed for improving constructing and understanding the questions, taking four criteria into account: corrected homogeneity index (CHI), response trend, correlation between items and qualitative analysis.


RESULTS
Cronbach's alpha coefficient for knowledge, attitudes and practice was 0,82, 0,80 and 0,62, respectively. Participants' level of knowledge, attitudes and practice was acceptable (60 %, 55 % and 91 %, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
This study found two out of the three evaluated instruments to be reliable (knowledge and attitudes); all three of them were then redesigned. The resulting instruments represent a valuable tool which can be used in future studies for describing and evaluating preventative programmes.
Martignon
Stefania
S
Unidad de Investigación en Caries UNICA-B, Universidad El Bosque, Bogotá, Colombia. smartignon@yahoo.com
Bautista-Mendoza
Gloria
G
González-Carrera
María
M
Lafaurie-Villamil
Gloria
G
Morales
Veicy
V
Santamaría
Ruth
R
D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003105:Colombia; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009909:Oral Health; D010290:Parents; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires