Oral Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Oral Mucosal Diseases: Reliability and Validity of Urdu Version of Chronic Oral Mucosal Disease Questionnaire (COMDQ)

Abstract

The aim of the study was to translate and validate the Urdu version of the Chronic Oral Mucosal Disease Questionnaire (COMDQ) and measure the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in Pakistani patients with chronic oral mucosal disease. One hundred and twenty patients with chronic oral mucosal diseases were recruited for this study. Two types of reliability of the COMDQ were tested. First, the internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach's alpha, and second, test-retest reliability was calculated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Convergent validity was assessed for testing the validity of the COMDQ by examining the correlations with the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and OHIP-14 using Pearson's correlations coefficient, and a t-test was used to compare the COMDQ domains and the socio-demographic characteristics. The most prevalent chronic oral mucosal disease (COMD) among the participants was recurrent aphthous stomatitis (47.5%), and the least prevalent was oral granulomatosis (6.6%). The total mean score for COMDQ was 43.5 (SD = 18.4). It showed a high level of internal consistency (Cronbach's a = 0.81), and test-retest reliability was also good (r = 0.85). The total score of COMDQ was strongly correlated with the total score of OHIP-14 and VAS (r = 0.86 and r = 0.83), which indicated good convergent validity. The score of pain and the functional limitation domain reported a significant difference with age (p < 0.021) and employment status (p < 0.034). The Urdu version of COMDQ is an accurate, valid, and reliable instrument that can be used to assess the OHRQoL in patients with chronic oral mucosal diseases in Pakistani and other Urdu-speaking populations of different age groups.