Validation of a Greek Version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) in Adolescents (Report‪)‬

Introduction Oral Health (OH) is an integral component of a population's general health and allows individuals to function in everyday life (eat, speak and socialize) without any problems caused by illness, discomfort or disability. Furthermore, OH contributes to the overall individual's well-being. Over the last 20 years several researchers have developed specific instruments aimed at the measurement of OH [Garratt et al., 2002] and its impact on the individual's quality of life [Slade and Spenser, 1994]. Among these the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) is one of the most widely used with demonstrable psychometric properties. The original version of the OHIP-49 included 49 items but was too long and Slade [1977] developed a shorter version of 14-item version called as OHIP-14. The shorter version has indicated consistency, responsiveness to changes [Allen et al., 2001; Locker et al., 2004] and sufficient cross-cultural reliability [Allison et al., 1999]. Both instruments, the longer and shorter versions, have been used with great success in several cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in adults [Locker and Slade, 1993] as well as adolescent populations. [Broder et al., 2000; Soe et al., 2004; Lopez and Baelum 2006]. Translation and cultural adaptation of both versions of OHIP-49 and OHIP-14 were successfully transformed into Chinese [Wong et al., 2002], German [John et al., 2002], Singhalese [Ekanayake and Perera, 2003], Brazilian [De Oliveira and Nadanovsky, 2005] and Spanish [Montero-Martin et al., 2009].