Reliability and validity of self-assessment of mouth opening: a validation study

BMC Oral Health

Thomas Dietrich¹  David Pearson²  Daniel Satnam Singh Saund² 

[1] The School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham, St Chad’s Queensway, Birmingham, B4 6NN, UK;Specialist Registrar Oral Surgeon, University of Birmingham, St Chads Queensway, Birmingham, B4 6NN, UK

关键词: TheraBite;    Scale;    Measurement;    Validity;    Reproducibility;   

Others  :  1126300
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6831-12-48

 received in 2012-07-27, accepted in 2012-11-09,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

The objective of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility and validity of patients’ mouth opening measurements in a research setting.

Methods

Firstly, 68 patients made repeated self-measurements of mouth opening using a cardboard scale (Therabite Range of Motion Scale – TRMS). Secondly, 80 patients enrolled in a clinical trial on morbidity after lower third molar surgery, made daily assessments during the postoperative week. Patients’ measurements were then compared to gold-standard clinicians’ measurements.

Results

Reliability of patients’ measurements was excellent with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.92. The patient’s measurements correlated well with the gold-standard clinician’s measurements, both for the first 68 patients (Pearson’s rho ranging from 0.86 to 0.90, p < 0.0001) as well as for the 80 patients enrolled in the clinical trial (rho = 0.82, p < 0.0001 at day 2, rho = 0.83, p < 0.0001 at final visit).

Conclusions

TRMS can be used by patients to produce reproducible and valid mouth opening measurements.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Saund et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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