Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 May 6:6:1543327.
doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1543327. eCollection 2025.

Validation of a Hebrew version of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale

Ofir Gaon  1 , Lena Natapov  2 , Diana Ram  1   3 , Shlomo Paul Zusman  2 , Avia Fux-Noy  1   3
Affiliations

Validation of a Hebrew version of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale

Ofir Gaon et al. Front Oral Health. .

Abstract

Background: Dental problems such as early childhood caries in toddlers and children can significantly impact their and their family's oral health-related quality of life.

Aim: This study aimed to validate a Hebrew version of the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS), providing a reliable tool for assessing oral health-related quality of life in toddlers and preschool children.

Design: The ECOHIS questionnaire was translated from English to Hebrew using the "forward-backward translation" method. Two pediatric dentistry specialists evaluated the face and content validity of the Hebrew ECOHIS. Parents of children under 6 years old visiting the pediatric dentistry department at a medical center completed the Hebrew version of the ECOHIS questionnaire and provided their child's personal information. The decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft) index was extracted from the dental record.

Results: The study group consisted of 96 children, whose parents participated, including 50 boys and 46 girls, with a mean age of 3.6 years. A positive correlation was found between higher ECOHIS scores and higher dmft indices. No differences were observed between ECOHIS scores and variables such as gender, age, and social subgroups of the participants. The overall scale reliability was high (Cronbach's alpha = .83). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the questionnaire's two-factor structure and indicated a moderate fit to the data.

Conclusion: The Hebrew version of the ECOHIS was found to be valid and reliable for measuring oral health-related quality of life in toddlers and preschool children in Israel.

Keywords: Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale; Hebrew; oral health-related quality of life; toddlers; validation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Confirmatory factor analysis of the ECOHIS-He items. The values in the figure are standardized coefficients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Sischo L, Broder HL. Oral health-related quality of life: what, why, how, and future implications. J Dent Res. (2011) 90:1264–70. 10.1177/0022034511399918 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Thomson WM, Broder HL. Oral–health–related quality of life in children and adolescents. Pediatr Clin North Am. (2018) 65:1073–84. 10.1016/j.pcl.2018.05.015 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chaffee BW, Rodrigues PH, Kramer PF, Vítolo MR, Feldens CA. Oral health-related quality-of-life scores differ by socioeconomic status and caries experience. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. (2017) 45:216–24. 10.1111/cdoe.12279 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yost J, Li Y. Promoting oral health from birth through childhood: prevention of early childhood caries. MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs. (2008) 33:17–23. 10.1097/01.NMC.0000305652.01743.8d - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kushnir D, Natapov L, Ram D, Shapira J, Gabai A, Zusman SP. Validation of a Hebrew version of the child-OIDP index, an oral health-related quality of life measure for children. Oral Health Prev Dent. (2013) 11:323–30. 10.3290/j.ohpd.a30173 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources