Objectives: To assess oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in regular dental practice with a minimum number of items. The 5-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-5) is such an instrument.
Methods: We recruited a sample of 500 adult patients waiting for an exam visit in HealthPartners dental clinics, Minnesota. The OHIP-5 was developed to capture 90% of the information in the summary score of the original 49-item OHIP. It describes with one item each four previously identified dimensions. For each OHIP question, subjects were asked how frequently they had experienced the impact in the last month. Responses were made on an ordinal scale (0 = never; to 4 = very often). OHIP-5 summary scores ranges from 0 to 20 with higher scores indicating worse OHRQoL. The reliability of OHIP-5 scores was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and inter-item correlation. Validity was assessed by correlating summary scores of OHIP-5 with OHIP-14.
Results: OHRQoL impairment in our patients was high. At least one problem was mentioned by 70% of the patients. Item 12 had the lowest prevalence for any impact with 9%. Item 3 had the highest impairment with 48%. OHIP-5 scores had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.68 (lower limit of 95% CI: 0.63) for the non-standardized items and 0.71 (lower limit of 95% CI: 0.67) for the standardized items. According to guidelines, values of 0.7 to 0.9 are considered “satisfactory." Inter-item correlation was 0.33 and was considered adequate. OHIP-5 scores showed a high correlation with OHIP-14 of 0.90, 95% CI: 0.88 to 0.92).
Conclusion: OHIP-5 scores in general dental practice had sufficient discriminative psychometric properties, allowing oral health-related quality of life assessment with a minimal subject and health care provider burden of 5 items. Supported by the UMSOD Summer Fellowship Program and HPRF partnership #09-006.