ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Studies of dental caries should account for sugar consumption as a potential confounder or effect modifier of other exposure-caries associations. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of a sugar consumption score for rural Haiti through correlation of test-retest scores derived from a structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire. METHODS: A structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire of sugar consumption was developed for rural Haiti to achieve contextual validity. The resulting questionnaire had two parts; one part captures the child's consumption of sugar products frequency; the second part captures sugar additions to the child's food preparation. A test-retest, one week apart, was conducted on a sample of 30 mother-child pairs (children ages 9-17). Test-retest correlations and paired t-testing was conducted to assess the questionnaire's reliability. RESULTS: All test-retest (Part 1, children's questions; Part 2, mother's questions; the combined scores) had Pearson product correlation coefficients of 0.7 or greater, respectively. All test-retest scores had paired t-test p-values3 0.95. CONCLUSIONS: A reliable, contextually valid relative sugar consumption questionnaire specific for rural Haiti is presented. The questionnaire and methodology employed in its development and testing may have utility for dental caries researchers in investigations in less developed countries.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Female , Humans , Male , Dietary Sucrose , Surveys and Questionnaires , Haiti , Mothers , Reproducibility of Results , Rural Population , Dietary Sucrose/administration & dosageSubject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Middle Aged , Humans , Male , Female , Blood Donors , Carrier State , Hepatitis B Surface AntigensSubject(s)
Infant , Child, Preschool , Child , Adolescent , Adult , Middle Aged , Humans , Hepatitis, Viral, Human , Hepatitis Viruses , Immunoglobulin M , Hepatitis B Antibodies , Hepatitis B Surface AntigensABSTRACT
Los resultados de una encuesta con 7,342 muestras de sangur de 13 paises y territorios de las Americas indican una elevada prevalencia de los anticuerpos contra el virus A de la hepatitis en esa Region. Los resultados senalan tambien una correlacion significativa entre la ausencia de dichos anticuerpos y la ausencia de marcadores indicativos de infeccion por el virus B de la hepatitis