Training and calibration of interviewers for oral health literacy using the BREALD-30 in epidemiological studies

Abstract The objective of this study was to describe an interviewer training and calibration method to evaluate oral health literacy using the Brazilian Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry (BREALD-30) in epidemiological studies. An experienced researcher (gold standard) conducted all training sessions. The interviewer training and calibration sessions included three different phases: theoretical training, practical training, and calibration. In the calibration phase, six interviewers (dentists) independently assessed 15 videos of individuals who had different levels of oral health literacy. Accuracy and reproducibility were evaluated using the kappa coefficient and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The percentage of agreement for each word in the instrument was also calculated. After training, the kappa values were higher than 0.911 and 0.893 for intra- and inter-rater agreement, respectively. When the results were analyzed separately for the different levels of literacy, the lowest agreement rate was found when evaluating the videos of individuals with low literacy (K = 0.871), but still within the range considered to be near-perfect agreement. The ICC values were higher than 0.990 and 0.975 for intra- and inter-rater agreement, respectively. The lowest percentage of agreement was 86.6% for the word "hipoplasia" (hypoplasia). This interviewer training and calibration method proved to be feasible and effective. Therefore, it can be used as a methodological tool in studies assessing oral health literacy using the BREALD-30.

Epidemiologia da cárie dentária em crianças da primeira infância no município de Belém, PA / Caries epidemiology of children in the primary infancy in the City of Belém, PA

Objetivo: O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o perfil epidemiológico da cárie dentária em crianças de 6 a 36 meses de idade no município de Belém-PA. Métodos: A amostra consistiu de 340 crianças. Nove examinadores calibrados participaram deste estudo. Índices ceo-d e ceo-s foram utilizados para o exame clínico. As crianças foram divididas de acordo com a idade em: 6-12, 13-24 e 25-36 meses. Os dados foram estatisticamente avaliados através do teste de qui- -quadrado, adotando-se um nível de significância de 5%. Resultados: A prevalência de cárie foi de 32,9% no total da amostra examinada. Índices ceo-d e ceo-s médios foram de 1,12 (dp=2,31) e 1,64 (dp=4,00), respectivamente. Observou-se um aumento significativo quanto à presença da cárie de acordo com a idade (P=0,0020). Do total de 6340 dentes decíduos examinados, houve maior proporção para o componente “cariado” com 362 dentes. Foi observada relação significativa de tratamentos curativos e a faixa etária de 25 a 36 meses (P=0,0057). Conclusão: Estes dados reforçam a importância da atenção odontológica precoce em crianças que se encontram na primeira infância neste município.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological profile of children aged 6-36-months-old living in the city of Belém, Pará, Brazil. Methods: The final sample was 340 children. Nine calibrated examiners participated in this study. The DMFT and DMFS indexes were used for clinical examination. The children were divided by age in: 6-12, 13-24 and 25-36-months-old. Data was statistically analyzed using the Qui-square test, with a significance level of 5%. Results: The prevalence of dental caries was 32,9% in the total of the sample. Indexes dmft and dmfs were 1.12 (sd=2.31) and 1.64 (sd=4,00), respectively. There has been a highly significant increase in caries experience proportionally with increasing age (P=0.0020). From the 6340 examined teeth, it was observed a higher proportion for decayed component with 362 teeth. There was a statistically significance relationship between curatives treatments and the age of 25 to 36-months-old (P=0.0057). Conclusions: The results of the current study emphasize the importance of an early odontological assistance for primary infants living at this city.