Pediatric Quality of Life Instruments in Oral Health Research: A Systematic Review.

Objective: To identify the generic or disease-specific pediatric quality of life (QoL) instruments used in oral health research among children and adolescents and to provide an overview of these QoL instruments.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed with multiple databases to identify the pediatric QoL instruments used in oral health research.

Results: The literature search yielded 872 records; from these, 16 pediatric QoL instruments were identified that had been used among children and adolescents in oral health research. Of these, 11 were oral health-specific QoL instruments and five were generic instruments. Of the 11 oral health-specific QoL instruments, none were multiattribute utility instruments (MAUI), whereas of the five generic instruments, two (Child Health Utility 9D index and EuroQoL-5D youth) were classified as an MAUI. Except for one, all pediatric QoL instruments were published after the year 2000 and the majority originated from the USA (n = 8). Of the 11 oral health-specific QoL instruments, five instruments are designed for the respondent to be a child (i.e., self-report), one uses proxy responses from a parent or guardian, and five instruments have both self and proxy versions. Of the five generic QoL instruments, one uses proxy responses and the other four instruments have both self and proxy versions.

Conclusions: This review identified a wide variety of pediatric oral health-specific and generic QoL instruments used in oral health research among children and adolescents. The availability of these QoL instruments provides researchers with the opportunity to select the instrument most suited to address their research question.