Development of Valid and Reliable Tools for Pediatricians' Knowledge and Self-Perceived Competency Towards Oral Health of Children in Turkey.

Background: This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire of knowledge about oral health in childhood and a scale of self-perceived competency for pediatricians. In this way, the contributions of Turkish pediatricians on oral health in childhood and their effects on children's oral health and caregivers will be evaluated.

Subjects And Methods: Items were generated from published scientific literature, other questionnaires, and interviewing notes with the pedodontists. The study group examined publications on the preventive oral health of children, and they included items related to children in the item pool. The initial knowledge questionnaire consisted of 23 items and 10 items for the self-perceived competency scale. The content validity of the questionnaire and scale were determined by the assessments of the expert team. The internal consistency of the knowledge questionnaire and test-retest reliability of the self-perceived competency scale was examined.

Results: Thirty pediatricians took part in the study. The pediatricians were: 63.3% (n = 19) female and 36.7% (n = 11) male; their mean age was 37.97 ± 3.86 years. Most of the pediatricians were specialists with 83.4% (n = 25). The medical specialization of all pediatricians was university and the working year mean was 10.93 ± 4.28. The knowledge questionnaire had 10 items after content validity and internal consistency reliability investigations. The initial number of items for the self-perception level scale was 10. We excluded five items due to the content validity index. ICC value for 5-item self-perception level scale was calculated as 0.816 (95% CI: 0.606-0.914). Therefore, the scale has a good reliability level.

Conclusion: Our knowledge questionnaire and self-perceived competency scale provide a validated and reliable tool in the assessment of pediatricians' knowledge and competency regarding oral health. Pediatricians can test themselves using this knowledge questionnaire and self-perceived competency scale.