Comparing the Clique Percolation algorithm to other overlapping community detection algorithms in psychological networks: A Monte Carlo simulation study.

In psychological networks, one limitation of the most used community detection algorithms is that they can only assign each node (symptom) to a unique community, without being able to identify overlapping symptoms. The clique percolation (CP) is an algorithm that identifies overlapping symptoms but its performance has not been evaluated in psychological networks. In this study, we compare the CP with model parameters chosen based on fuzzy modularity (CPMod) with two other alternatives, the ratio of the two largest communities (CPRat), and entropy (CPEnt).

Oral Health, Social and Emotional Well-Being, and Economic Costs: Protocol for the Second Australian National Child Oral Health Survey.

Background: Given the significant investment of governments and families into the provision of child dental care services in Australia, continued population oral health surveillance through national oral health surveys is imperative.

Objective: The aims of this study are to conduct a second National Child Oral Health Survey (NCOHS-2) to (1) describe the prevalence, extent, and impact of oral diseases in contemporary Australian children; (2) evaluate changes in the prevalence and extent of oral diseases in the Australian child population and socioeconomic subgroups since the first National Child Oral Health Study (NCOHS-1) in 2012-2013; and (3) use economic modeling to evaluate the burden of child oral disease from the NCOHS-1 and NCOHS-2 and to estimate the cost-effectiveness of targeted programs for high-risk child groups.

Methods: The NCOHS-2 will closely mimic the NCOHS-1 in being a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of Australian children aged 5-14 years.

Development and validation of the COVID-19 Impact Scale in Australia.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted and continues to impact the health and well-being of Australian adults. However, there has been no instrument validated to comprehensively measure how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted adults in Australia across several domains (e.g.

Development and validation of an HPV infection knowledge assessment scale among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Background: An increased incidence of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection and its related cancers has been observed in recent years. Correct knowledge about HPV infection can lead to a significant decrease in transmission and a subsequent increase in vaccine uptake. Awareness and behavioural perception towards HPV infections are critical for improving HPV vaccination rates among Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Psychometric properties of the Social Support Scale (SSS) in two Aboriginal samples.

In Australia, despite social support increasingly being reported as playing an important role in influencing health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, measures of social support have not yet been validated for Aboriginal people. The current study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Social Support Scale in an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander population. The Social Support Scale (SSS) is a 4-item psychological instrument that was designed to evaluate four social support functions, instrumental, informational, emotional and appraisal support.

Psychological Network of Stress, Coping and Social Support in an Aboriginal Population.

Over the past decades, increasing research interest has been directed towards the psychosocial factors that impact Aboriginal health, including stress, coping and social support. However, there has been no study that examined whether the behaviours, cognitions and emotions related to stress, coping and social support constitute a psychological network in an Aboriginal population and that examined its properties. To address this gap, the current study employed a new methodology, network psychometrics, to evaluate stress, coping and social support in an Aboriginal Australian population.

Development of Social Determinants of Health Screening Tool (SDoHST): qualitative validation with stakeholders and patients in South Australia.

Background: It is well-established that social determinants of health contribute to health and well-being. Among the social determinants of health, health-related social needs (HRSNs) are unmet needs that can be identified by the health care system and addressed through referral to community services. Despite the importance of identifying patients with HRSNs, none of the few screening tools for HRSNs available internationally have received a comprehensive psychometric validation.

A network psychometric validation of the Children Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (COHQoL) questionnaire among Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children.

In Australia, research evidence has shown that Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children experience a higher burden of oral health diseases compared to other non-Indigenous children. The impact of oral health diseases on children's functional and psychosocial outcomes led to the development of several instruments to evaluate child oral health-related quality of life (COHQoL), such as the Parental-Caregiver Perception Questionnaire (P-CPQ) and the Family Impact Scale (FIS). However, the psychometric properties of these instruments have been evaluated only in Western cultures and have not been investigated for Aboriginal children in Australia.

A psychometric network perspective to oral health literacy: Examining the replicability of network properties across the general community and older adults from Brazil.

Objectives: To evaluate the replicability of oral health literacy (OHL) network models across the general community and a sample of older adults from Brazil.

Methods: Data were obtained from two oral health surveys conducted with a total of 1138 participants. OHL was measured using the short form Health Literacy in Dentistry scale (HeLD-14).

Psychometric properties of the EQ-5D-3L in South Australia: a multi-method non-preference-based validation study.

Objective: Although HRQoL tools such as the EQ-5D-3L are significant in determining health status, these measures have not been validated in general populations in Australia. This study aims to psychometrically validate the EQ-5D-3L in a large population sample in Australia for the first time.

Methods: The EQ-5D-3L was included in the Dental Care and Oral Health study (DCOHS), conducted in a South Australian population sample.

Exploratory Graph Analysis of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Children.

In Australia, one of the most frequently used measures for assessing social and emotional well-being (SEWB) of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children is the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Previous studies on state-level validations have indicated the problems associated with the original five-factor SDQ structure, especially in the dimension of Peer Problems. The aim of this study was to use a novel psychometric methodology, namely Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA), to evaluate the dimensionality of caregiver-informant SDQ version 4-10 years at a national level in Australia.

Dietary Intake and Anthropometric Measurement at Age 36 Months Among Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Children in Australia: A Secondary Analysis of the Baby Teeth Talk Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Interventions to reduce early childhood caries should be examined for their effects on anthropometry given their design to improve children's diets.

Objective: To compare the outcomes of dietary intake, anthropometric measurements, and blood pressure measurements between children at age 36 months in the immediate intervention group vs those in the delayed intervention group.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This secondary analysis was a follow-up to the 2-group Baby Teeth Talk randomized clinical trial conducted across the state of South Australia, Australia.

Exploratory Graph Analysis of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

In Australia, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been implemented in several national studies, including the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). However, three previous state-level validations indicated problems with instrument dimensionality, warranting further research. To address this gap, the current study employed exploratory graph analysis to investigate dimensionality of the caregiver-completed SDQ version 4 to 10 years in a nationally representative sample of Australian children.

Dental Health Inequalities among Indigenous Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to document the disparity in dental caries experiences among indigenous and nonindigenous populations globally by measuring dental caries prevalence and severity. An electronic database (MEDLINE) was initially searched using relevant keywords. This was followed by use of the search string in the following electronic databases: Scopus, EBSCOhost, Cochrane, and Open Grey.

Dynamics in oral health-related factors of Indigenous Australian children: A network analysis of a randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: Network analysis is an innovative, analytic approach that enables visual representation of variables as nodes and their corresponding statistical associations as edges. It also provides a new way of framing oral health-related questions as complex systems of variables. We aimed to generate networks of oral health variables using epidemiological data of Indigenous children, and to compare network structures of oral health variables among participants who received immediate or delayed delivery of an oral health intervention.

Prevalence of dental caries among Indigenous populations compared to non-Indigenous populations: a quantitative systematic review protocol.

Objective: The objective of this review is to evaluate if the prevalence of dental caries is higher among Indigenous populations compared to non-Indigenous populations.

Introduction: Globally, Indigenous populations have experienced substantial inequalities in health, including oral health care, when compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Indigenous populations experience a higher prevalence of dental caries, but most of this data has been collected from convenience samples not involving non-Indigenous groups.

Drop-the-: Bayesian CFA of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support in Australia.

Aim: We aimed to investigate whether the 12-item Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) constitutes a valid and reliable measure of social support for the general adult Australian population.

Methods: Data were from Australia's National Survey of Adult Oral Health 2004-2006 and included 3899 participants aged 18 years old and over. The psychometric properties were evaluated with Bayesian confirmatory factor analysis.

Psychometric properties of the EQ-5D-5L for aboriginal Australians: a multi-method study.

Introduction: In Australia, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instruments have been adopted in national population surveys to inform policy decisions that affect the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. However, Western-developed HRQoL instruments should not be assumed to capture Indigenous conceptualization of health and well-being. In our study, following recommendations for cultural adaptation, an Indigenous Reference Group indicated the EQ-5D-5L as a potentially valid instrument to measure aspects of HRQoL and endorsed further psychometric evaluation.

Do network centrality measures predict dental outcomes of Indigenous children over time?

Background: Centrality measures identify items that are central to a network, which may inform potential targets for oral interventions.

Aim: We tested whether centrality measures in a cross-sectional network of mothers' baseline factors are able to predict the association with children's dental outcomes at age 5 years.

Design: A network approach was applied to longitudinal data from a randomised controlled trial of dental caries prevention delivered to 448 women pregnant with an Indigenous child in South Australia.

Sense of personal control: Can it be assessed culturally unbiased across Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians?

Unlabelled: In recent decades, several studies have emphasized sense of personal control as a prominent aspect of Aboriginal health. However, one limitation is that instruments available to measure personal control were originally developed in western countries and validation for Aboriginal Australians has not been conducted. The aims of the current study were to evaluate whether the Sense of Personal Control Scale (SPCS) can be used to obtain culturally unbiased measurement of personal control across Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians and to assess the psychometric properties of the SPCS for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian.

Validation of a 4-item child perception questionnaire in Australian children.

Objective: To develop and validate a 4-item child oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) instrument that might be more amenable for uptake in large scale, multifaceted surveys of children's health and wellbeing than current, longer-form child OHRQoL instruments.

Methods: Data were obtained from a study of the South Australian School Dental Service population designed to investigate OHRQoL among school children aged 8-13 years in 2002-2003. The Child Perception Questionnaire (CPQ8-10 and CPQ11-14) was utilised, which comprises 25 & 37 items representing four conceptual domains: oral symptoms, functional limitations, emotional wellbeing and social wellbeing.

The utility of network analysis in the context of Indigenous Australian oral health literacy.

Background: The study of oral health literacy (OHL) is likely to gain new and interesting insights with the use of network analysis, a powerful analytical tool that allows the investigation of complex systems of relationships. Our aim was to investigate the relationships between oral health literacy and oral health-related factors in a sample of Indigenous Australian adults using a network analysis approach.

Methods: Data from 400 Indigenous Australian adults was used to estimate four regularised partial correlation networks.

Development and initial psychometric assessment of the race-related attitudes and multiculturalism scale in Australia.

Aim: The present study aims to develop the Race-related Attitudes and Multiculturalism Scale (RRAMS), as well as to perform an initial psychometric assessment of this instrument in a national sample of Australian adults.

Methods: The sample comprised 2,714 Australian adults who took part in the 2013 National Dental Telephone Interview Survey (NDTIS), which includes a telephone-based interview and a follow-up postal questionnaire. We used Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to evaluate the RRAMS' factorial structure (n = 271) and then proceeded with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to confirm the proposed structure in an independent sample (n = 2,443).

Degrees of xerostomia? A Rasch analysis of the Xerostomia Inventory.

Objective(s): The global demographic changes resulting in an ageing population require attention on xerostomia, as its prevalence appears to increase with age. The Xerostomia Inventory (XI) is a 11-item instrument developed to evaluate the symptoms and behavioural components of xerostomia, while a shortened 5-item version named Summated Xerostomia Inventory (SXI) was later proposed. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the construct validity of the XI and whether the SXI can provide a shortened version.

Prevalence and associated factors with integrative and complementary practices use in Brazil.

The aim of the current study was to investigate the prevalence of the use the integrative and complementary practices (ICP) and its associated factors in Brazil. Data was obtained from the cross-sectional National Health Survey 2013 (NHS), which had 145,580 adults aged 18 or over were interviewed. The outcome was the use of any ICP over the last 12 months and independent variables were macro-region, sex, age, educational attainment, skin color/race, and chronic disease.