title: Patient-Reported oral health outcome measurement for children and adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oral health is an important component of daily functioning and well-being. A comprehensive patient-reported oral health measure is needed to gauge the impact of oral health status on children and adolescents. This study aims to develop oral health item banks and associated short-form surveys for children and adolescents 2-17 year olds.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using children and adolescents, ages 2-17 years, selected from diverse dental sites in Greater Los Angeles Area, we propose to develop state-of-the-science methods to create oral health item banks to effectively measure oral health outcomes for children and adolescents. Methods include a literature review of existing measures, focus groups, cognitive interviews, drafting and field testing of survey items, and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the measures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on the systematic literature search and focus groups, we identified core (physical health, mental health, and social function domains) and peripheral (e.g., need and access) oral health domains. We then drafted survey items and revised them based on 66 cognitive interviews (27 children/adolescents and 39 parents) with 39 families. The revised items will be administered in a field test of 500 children and adolescents ages 2-17, and their parents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The qualitative methods used in the initial phases of the project (focus group and cognitive interviews) are the initial steps in the development of oral health item banks and associated short-form surveys for children and adolescents. The oral health items can potentially be used to create effective computerized adaptive test and/or create ad hoc short forms targeting specific areas of oral health to survey large populations of children with much less cost compared with traditional clinical oral health examination.
authors.affiliation: Division of Public Health & Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA. hhliu@dentistry.ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Honghu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: UCLA Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Ron D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Hays
authors.affiliation: Division of Public Health & Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Marvin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marcus
authors.affiliation: Division of Public Health & Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Coulter
authors.affiliation: Division of Public Health & Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maida
authors.affiliation: UCLA Section of Pediatric Dentistry, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ramos-Gomez
authors.affiliation: Division of Public Health & Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: UCLA Department of Biostatistics, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Division of Public Health & Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Spolsky
authors.affiliation: UCLA Section of Restorative Dentistry, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: UCLA Department of Education, School of Education and Information Studies, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Division of Public Health & Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D009909:Oral Health; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Adolescent; Children; Longitudinal survey; Oral health; Patient-reported outcomes