The Turkish version of Caries Impacts and Experiences Questionnaire for Children: Translation, reliability, and validity.

Background: Caries Impacts and Experiences Questionnaire for Children (CARIES-QC) has been developed to assess the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) associated with caries.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the CARIES-QC in the Turkish-speaking population following its translation and adaptation into Turkish (CARIES-QC/T).

Design: Two hundred and fifty children between the ages of 5 and 16 years who have active dental caries were included in the study and answered the Turkish-translated and cross-culturally adapted final version of CARIES-QC/T. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency were used to examine the reliability of the CARIES-QC/T. Factor structure of CARIES-QC/T was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and convergent validity was determined.

Results: Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's ômega values were 0.907 and 0.908, respectively. For the CARIES-QC/T scale, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) value was 0.933, and polychoric correlations ranged from 0.390 to 0.794. The convergent validity of the items revealed a statistically significant correlation with the global question (r = 0.821, p < .001). The EFA results of CARIES-QC/T suggested a one-factor solution and explained 59.7% of the total variance.

Conclusion: The findings provided supporting evidence that the CARIES-QC/T could be used as a tool for measuring OHRQoL in healthy Turkish-speaking children aged 5-16 years with active caries.