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. 2016 Jul 15;17(1):17.
doi: 10.1186/s12903-016-0248-2.

Validity of self-reported number of teeth and oral health variables

Daisuke Matsui  1 , Toshiro Yamamoto  2 , Masaru Nishigaki  2 , Fumitaro Miyatani  2 , Isao Watanabe  3 , Teruhide Koyama  3 , Etsuko Ozaki  3 , Nagato Kuriyama  3 , Narisato Kanamura  2 , Yoshiyuki Watanabe  3
Affiliations

Validity of self-reported number of teeth and oral health variables

Daisuke Matsui et al. BMC Oral Health. .

Abstract

Background: Oral condition and number of teeth were investigated by questionnaire in the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort (J-MICC Study). The aim of the present study was to assess the validity of the tooth number measure by comparing the self-reported number of teeth with the number of teeth determined at clinical dental examination.

Methods: A self-administered questionnaire and dental examination were performed by 1275 participants of a company medical examination who requested dental check-up and 377 subjects of the J-MICC study. The validity of the tooth number measure was assessed by comparing the self-reported number of teeth with that determined at clinical examination. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was calculated to quantitatively evaluate the validity.

Results: In males, the mean clinically-examined and self-reported numbers of teeth were 26.5 and 24.8 teeth, respectively. In females, the mean clinically-examined and self-reported numbers of teeth were 26.4 and 25.5 teeth, respectively. There was a tendency toward underestimation of the number of natural teeth by self-reporting. A significant correlation was observed between the clinically-examined and self-reported numbers of teeth in total (ρ = 0.69) and both males (ρ = 0.70) and females (ρ = 0.67).

Conclusions: The self-reported oral health variables were valid and reflected clinical status. Further revision of the question on the remaining tooth in the questionnaire improves the validity of self-reported number of teeth.

Keywords: Number of teeth; Questionnaire survey; Self-report; Validity.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Association of self-reported and clinically-determined numbers of teeth
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