title: Translation and validation of a Chinese language version of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to adapt the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS) for pre-school children in a Chinese speaking community and to investigate its psychometric properties (validity and reliability).
  
  
  METHODS
  A Chinese language version of the ECOHIS was derived through a forward-backward translation and tested for face and content validity among a focus group. A convenient sample of pre-school children (n = 111) was recruited (including a sub-sample with early childhood caries and caries-free children). Parents of the children self-completed the derived Chinese-ECOHIS measure. Validity of the measure was assessed by investigating the relationship between dental caries status and Chinese-ECOHIS scores (construct and criterion validity). A sub-sample of the parents repeated the ratings of the measure to enable reliability assessments. Both internal and test-retest reliability were determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A Chinese version of ECOHIS was derived with minor modification to the original version. Chinese-ECOHIS scores were associated with children's caries experience (dmft) (r = 0.66, P < 0.05) supporting convergent validity. In addition, variations in ECOHIS scores were apparent with respect to caries and caries-free groups (P < 0.001), supporting the ability to distinguish between patient groups. Cronbach's alpha values (internal reliability) for total ECOHIS score were 0.91 and intraclass correlation coefficient value (test-retest reliability) was 0.64.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A Chinese version of the ECOHIS was developed and demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability. These findings can enable assessments of pre-school child oral health-related quality of life in Chinese speaking communities.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
authors.forename: Gillian H M
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Colman
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McGrath
authors.forename: Cynthia K Y
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Yiu
authors.forename: Nigel M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: King
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000523:psychology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009909:Oral Health; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014078:Tooth Eruption; D018677:Tooth Injuries / Q000523:psychology; D014177:Translations