title: Hispanic parents' reading language preference and pediatric oral health-related quality of life.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study compared scores and psychometric properties from self-identified Hispanic parents who completed Pediatric Oral Health-related Quality of life (POQL) parent report-on-child questionnaires in Spanish or English. The study hypothesized that there were no differences in psychometric properties or POQL scores by parent reading language preference, controlling for dental needs, child's place of birth, age, insurance and use of care.
  
  
  METHODS
  POQL scores were computed, and the internal consistency, feasibility, factor structure and construct validity of the Spanish language version assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hispanic parents (N = 387) of 8-14 year old children (mean age 10.2) completed the survey; 237 in Spanish and 150 in English. Internal consistency scores were higher (Cronbach α range = .86-.93) among Hispanic parents who completed the questionnaire in Spanish than in English (.66-.86). POQL scores from parents who completed questionnaires in Spanish were higher (worse) overall (6.03 vs. 3.82, P = 0.022), as were physical (11.61 vs. 6.54, P = 0.001) and role functioning domains (1.87 vs. 0.82, P = 0.029). Items for crying, pain, and eating were higher (P < 0.05) for the Spanish than the English completers. However, POQL scores were associated only with need for care (P = 0.05), parent reports of dental visit in the last year (P = 0.05) and worse oral health than a year ago (P = 0.002), controlling for reading language (not significant) and visit in last year in the final multivariate linear regression.
authors: Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research, Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
authors: Iffet
authors: I
authors: Yazicioglu
authors: Judith A
authors: JA
authors: Jones
authors: Dharma
authors: D
authors: Cortés
authors: Sharron
authors: S
authors: Rich
authors: Raul
authors: R
authors: Garcia
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009909:Oral Health; D010290:Parents; D011788:Quality of Life; D011932:Reading; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: children; dental; quality of life