title: [Instruments for evaluating oral health knowledge, attitudes and practice for parents /caregivers of small children].
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación en Caries UNICA-B, Universidad El Bosque, Bogotá, Colombia. smartignon@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martignon
authors.forename: Gloria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bautista-Mendoza
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: González-Carrera
authors.forename: Gloria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lafaurie-Villamil
authors.forename: Veicy
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Morales
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Santamaría
mesh_terms: 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