Cultural adaptation and validation of the mandarin version of the scale of oral health outcomes for 5-year-old children

Introduction To translate and culturally adapt the scale of oral health outcomes for 5-year-old children (SOHO-5) into Mandarin, and to assess the reliability and validity of the Mandarin version of the SOHO-5 (M-SOHO-5) for Mainland Chinese preschool children. Methods A forward-backwards translation method was used to develop a draft M-SOHO-5 from the original English version. The draft was tested with 20 pairs of children and parents for the initial validity of the content, and revisions were made accordingly. Then, the final version was studied on 259 pairs of 5-year-old children and their parents. The reliability of M-SOHO-5 was assessed through test-retest reliability and internal consistency. Clinical examination for dental caries was performed to study the discriminant validity of M-SOHO-5. Construct validity was evaluated using global rating questions. Results The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the children's version of M-SOHO-5 (M-SOHO-5c) and the parents’ version (M-SOHO-5p) were 0.80 and 0.85, respectively. The intraclass correlation for M-SOHO-5c and M-SOHO-5p was 0.51 ( p = 0.014) and 0.65 ( p = 0.001). Children with dental caries had higher mean ranks for both M-SOHO-5c and M-SOHO-5p compared to caries-free children (130.88 vs. 124.68, p = 0.465; 136.58 vs. 114.72, p = 0.007). Moreover, the results of both M-SOHO-5c and M-SOHO-5p were correlated with the global rating questions. Discussion The M-SOHO-5 showed good reliability and construct validity. The discriminant validity of the parental version is good, but that of the children's version is limited.