Abstract

CABALLERO-GARCIA, Cristina Raquel; FLORES-ALATORRE, José Francisco  and  ARENAS-MONREAL, Luz. Oral health related quality of life: a critical review of measuring instruments. Mem. Inst. Investig. Cienc. Salud [online]. 2017, vol.15, n.2, pp.108-117. ISSN 1812-9528.  https://doi.org/10.18004/mem.iics/1812-9528/2017.015(02)108-117.

There is growing recognition of the importance of oral health-related quality of life. This has given rise to the development of various instruments to measure the relationship between quality of life and oral health. Understanding why and how oral health affects quality of life is highly relevant to the research, teaching and practice of professional dentistry. The objective of this literature review was to update the knowledge about the general and psychometric characteristics of instruments to measure quality of life related to oral health that emerged after the publication in 1997 of the results of the conference "Measuring oral health and quality of life”. We conducted a literature review using MEDLINE and GOOGLE Scholar databases to identify publications that appeared between January, 1998 and June, 2011. We used common international frames of reference to establish specific search criteria for the inclusion, collection, and analysis of the general and psychometric properties of the instruments. We identified 233 articles, ten of which met all the established criteria. Ultimately we reduced this number to nine because one of the articles was a duplicate. All identified articles were in English. All instruments identified through the literature review were multidimensional and had adequate psychometrtic properties. The majority of instruments was based on prior measurement tools and the classification of impairments and disabilities. We conclude that to advance the measurement of oral health-related quality of life, the specific context and characteristics of the Latin American population should be taken into account. So far, this topic has only been addressed in English language publications.

Keywords : oral health; quality of life; measuring instruments.

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