ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral Health Promotion
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1543327
Validation of a Hebrew version of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale
Provisionally accepted
- 1Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- 2Division of Dental Health, Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel
- 3Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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Background: Dental problems like early childhood caries in toddlers and children significantly can impact their and their family’s oral health-related quality of life. Aim: This study aimed to validate a Hebrew version of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS), providing a reliable tool for assessing oral health-related quality of life in toddlers and pre-school children. Design: The ECOHIS questionnaire was translated from English to Hebrew using the "forward backward translation" method. Two pediatric dentistry specialists evaluated the face and content validity of the Hebrew ECOHIS. Parents of children under 6 years old, visiting the pediatric dentistry department at a medical center completed the Hebrew version of the ECOHIS questionnaire and provided their child's personal information. The decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft) index was extracted from the dental record. Results: Two pediatric dentistry specialists confirmed the face and content validity of the Hebrew ECOHIS. The study group consisted of 96 children, whose parents participated, including 50 boys and 46 girls, with a mean age of 3.6 years. A strong positive correlation was found between higher ECOHIS scores and higher dmft indices. Weak correlationsNo differences were observed between ECOHIS scores and variables such as gender, age, and social sector subgroups of the participants. The overall scale reliability was high (Cronbach’s alpha = .83). Confirmatory factor analysis supported questionnaire's two-factor structure and indicated a moderate fit to the data. Conclusion: The Hebrew version of the ECOHIS was found to be valid and reliable for measuring oral health-related quality of life in toddlers and preschool children in Israel.
Keywords: Validation, Hebrew, Oral health-related quality of life, Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale, toddlers
Received: 11 Dec 2024; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gaon, Natapov, Ram, Zusman and Fux-Noy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Avia Fux-Noy, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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