Reprodutibilidade da Versão Portuguesa Do Hiroshima University Dental Behavioural Inventory (HUDBI - versão portuguesa). Diferenças nas atitudes e comportamentos entre estudantes do 1° e 3° ano do curso de Higiene Oral

Abstract

Objectives The purposes of this study were: 1) to analyze the reproducibility of the Portuguese version of Hiroshima University Dental Behavioural Inventory for the screening of information about oral health attitudes and behaviors in Portuguese students; and 2) investigate possible behavioral differences between first and third year dental hygiene students. Methods 75 university students, ages between 18 to 34 years old, volunteered to participate. Translation and back translation were made by two bilingual teachers with English as their original language and by experts in oral health sciences. Measures of association were used to quantify the strength and nature of the relationships within variables Φ (“ Phi” coefficient) and between the variables and the interval value obtained in the whole inventory (“ Eta” coefficient). To test validity and reproducibility, the inventory was repeated two times with 23 days of interval and weighed Kappa statistics were calculated. Results The coefficients “ Eta” (0.402-0.751) showed moderate and strong dependency of HUDBI scores on the majority of the inventory items. On the other hand, coefficients Φ (“ Phi” coefficient) (0,225-0,512) showed week to moderate association between items, demonstrating the quantity of independent variables of the inventory. The strong and ideal concordances obtained by Kappa statistics (0,667-1) demonstrate that the instrument is reliable. Conclusions The Portuguese version of the inventory may be considered as a valid and reliable instrument to measure behaviors and attitudes towards oral health in Portuguese university students.