Validity of a Self-reported Questionnaires for Periodontitis in a Kurdish Population of Sulaimani City/Iraq

Abstract

Objective: Full-mouth clinical periodontal evaluations in large surveys may not be practicable. Therefore, the questionnaire can be used to reduce cost and time. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate two previously used questionnaires to determine periodontitis and compare them in the Kurdish population. 
 Methods: The two different questionnaires used were previously examined in different populations. Full mouth periodontal examination of bleeding on probing, pocket depth, clinical attachment loss, furcation involvement, and recession were recorded. The case definition of periodontitis is based on the 2017 classification. The receiver operating characteristic curve, area under the curve (AUC), and logistic regression were used to examine the validity of each questionnaire. 
 Results: Self-reported questionnaires had a useful discriminative capability for detecting periodontitis patients. In questionnaire1, (Q1) has the uppermost true positive result (79.2%), and the strongest crude associations were seen for Q3 (17.72) and 4 (10.9). Whereas, in questionnaire 2, the most frequent positive response was to the Q12 (77.2%), and the strongest crude associations were detected for the Q2 (13.76%) and Q6 (20.78%). The combinations of questions revealed increasing the AUC. 
 Conclusions: The use of several self-reported questions revealed a good performance for screening periodontitis in the Kurdish population, especially those related to patient awareness about periodontal disease, bleeding of the gum, treatment, and diagnosis that had been carried out for patients previously by a dentist.