Reliability of Malayalam version of Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index among institutionalized elderly in Alleppey, Kerala (India): A pilot study

Validation of a modified version of the Spanish Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI-SP) for adults and elder people

Background

The Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI) was developed and validated in 1990 and translated into Spanish in 1999. Since then, the original version has been used in numerous studies, but it has not been re-evaluated in terms of language in the new generations of older adults. The purpose of this study is to confirm the validity of the Spanish version of the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI-SP) after three decades to be used as part of an ongoing field trial.

Methods

The GOHAI-SP was pilot tested in a focus group to confirm linguistic comprehension. A version with minor language changes was administered to individuals with metabolic syndrome aged 55–75 years from one health care district in southern Spain as part of an ongoing field trial (PREDIMED-Plus). Clinical evaluation included assessment of dental and periodontal status. The psychometric properties of the GOHAI-SP were evaluated through stability and internal consistency measures, and concurrent and discriminant validity were assessed.

Results

The new version of the GOHAI-SP was administered to 100 individuals. The application time was reduced by 7 min. The alpha value for reliability was 0.87. The item-scale correlation coefficients ranged from 0.54 to 0.75, and the test–re-test correlation for the total score was 0.75. There were inverse correlations between GOHAI-SP scores and the number of lost teeth and the decayed-missing-filled teeth index (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

The GOHAI-SP questionnaire remains a valid and useful tool to assess oral health-related quality of life in primary health care settings. A linguistic update of the questionnaire brought improvements to the instrument application.

Trial registration

The PREDIMED-Plus trial is registered in the ISRCTN registry with reference number ISRCTN89898870. Registration date: 4th July 2014.

Cultural adaptation and validation of the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index - GOHAI - Colombian version

Objective

This study aims to carry out the cultural adaptation and the validation of the GOHAI scale for the Colombian population.

Methods

Translation process, cultural adaptation, and content and face validity were carried out with a sample of 63 participants as a pretest. The validation counted with a sample of 7,200 subjects, divided into two groups: a work sample (WS) with 3,628 subjects and a confirmatory sample (CS) with 3,572 subjects. Construct, criterion validity and internal consistency were performed for both samples. Test-retest reliability was assessed with a sub-sample of 75 participants.

Results

The GOHAI showed an appropriate face and content validity, the pre-test revealed an understandable questionnaire, the scale showed a unidimensional factorial structure and a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.8. Convergent validity with a self-perception on general health scale pointed to a significant correlation (p= 0.0001), while discriminant validity showed significant differences regarding groups according to age group, skin color, educational level, socio-economic level, healthcare affiliation and self-perception about need of dental prostheses. Gender groups did not show significant differences among groups within either sample. The CS showed similar results, differences existed among factorial structures of 2 and 3 factors, and for discriminant validity, the CS showed statistically significant differences for the Area variable not in the WS. Kendall's test-retest analysis's correlation is 0.85 (p= 0.0000).

Conclusions

The GOHAI scale is valid and reliable enough to be used as a measure of Oral-Health-Related Quality of Life in the Colombian elderly population, also could be applied for other Latin-American populations.

Influence of oral health on the quality of life of institutionalized and noninstitutionalized elderly people

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to determine the perception of institutionalized (G1) and noninstitutionalized (G2) elderly people on oral health and quality of life (QOL).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This cross-sectional, exploratory study applied two instruments - the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI) and the World Health Organization QOL-Bref (WHOQOL-BREF) - in two cities of the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Among the institutionalized elderly, G1 (n = 150), 50% were not mentally able to answer the questions correctly, 12% did not answer all the questions, and 7.34% refused to take part in the research or were too frail or dependent, resulting in 31 institutionalized participants. In the noninstitutionalized group, G2 (n = 80), 52.50% refused to take part in the research, resulting in 38 noninstitutionalized participants. The elderly individuals (i) who did not respond to three or more questions of the GOHAI, (ii) those who did not answer all the questions of the WHOQOL-Bref, and (iii) those who did not consent to participate in the research study were excluded from the study population (P < 0.05 consider significant).

RESULTS

The oral health of both groups minimally affected the QOL of the elderly. The WHOQOL-Bref score varied between the two study groups mainly in terms of physical domain and self-perception of QOL. The study groups showed differences in some variables: self-perception of QOL (P = 0.0209), mobility (P = 0.0057), and access to health services (P = 0.0252). G2 presented the best conditions.

CONCLUSION

The oral health condition of both groups minimally affected the QOL of the participants; however, differences in the self-perception of QOL were significant, mainly in the physical domain.