ABSTRACT
Purpose: The study was planned to develop and validate a novel middle childhood oral health impact scale (MCOHIS) for 6- to 9-year-old children in India. Methodology: A cross-sectional study design was employed to develop and validate MCOHIS in the sequential phases. A panel of ten pediatric dentists evaluated a pool of 36 items corresponding to the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of children. MCOHIS with 20 items under five domains was formulated and content validation was done. Cohen's kappa statistics was employed to measure the concordance between the child's self-report and the caregiver's proxy report. Concurrent validation was done among 130 participants from 13 districts of Tamil Nadu state, India. Discriminant validity was checked among another sample of 60 participants. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of MCOHIS were assessed using Cronbach's alpha and Kappa statistics respectively. Results: MCOHIS had adequate content validation with Scale Level Content Validity Index / Average score of 0.94 for relevance. There was a statistically significant inter-rater reliability observed between the child's self-report and caregivers' proxy report in all items with a moderate to substantial agreement. Concurrent validation showed a statistically significant positive correlation with a Rho value of 0.712. There was a statistically significant difference noted in overall discriminant validity (P < 0.001). Acceptable internal consistency reliability was observed with Cronbach's alpha value of 0.75. Test-retest reliability showed a high stability coefficient of 0.98. Conclusions: MCOHIS was found to be a valid and reliable age-specific tool for assessing the OHRQoL of Indian children aged 6–9 years.
ABSTRACT
Background: Ego defense mechanisms (EDMs) act as a major factor for overcoming stressful situations in life. Aims: The study aimed to assess the various patterns and factors of EDMs employed by pediatric dental postgraduate students in India. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional design, web-based questionnaire survey. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study on EDM was conducted among 246 pediatric dental postgraduates in India from July to October 2019. The modified form of the Defense Style Questionnaire-20 included 10 EDMs under three major patterns– Mature, Immature, and Neurotic. The questionnaire was sent to all pediatric dental postgraduates enrolled in the Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry and reminders were sent every week for 6 weeks. Results: Among the 1041 pediatric dental postgraduates who received the E-mail, two hundred and forty-six students responded to the same. The respondents included 89 males and 157 females. The mature pattern was found to be the most commonly employed EDM (males-47.20%; females-51.60%). Sublimation (72.76%), a mature type of defense was found to be the most common EDM factor employed by the majority of the students. The immature pattern was higher among males when compared to females (males-14.60%; females-5.70%). Conclusion: Most pediatric dental postgraduates exhibited a mature pattern, followed by a neurotic and immature pattern of EDM. The mature pattern of EDM was displayed more by the female students than the male students. Sublimation was found to be the maximum expressed factor followed by acting out.