No significant retest effects in oral health-related quality of life assessment using the Oral Health Impact Profile

Objective. To investigate retest effects in assessment of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) in patients requiring prosthodontic treatment. Material and methods. The German 49-item OHIP was administered in 21 patients requiring prosthodontic treatment on three pretreatment occasions: twice (t1 and t2) on day 1, 1-2 h apart, and on day 2 (t3), 3-78 days later. Differences in reliability coefficients, OHIP summary scores, and item responses, and the influence of time on score differences were analyzed. Results. Some evidence of retest effects in oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) was found (the difference in reliability coefficients between t1-t2 and t2-t3 was 0.08; p=0.02). Conclusions. The findings support repeated OHRQoL assessment over short periods of time when perceived oral health is rapidly changing. This is important because many oral conditions have acute symptoms and treatments have immediate OHRQoL effects that need to be measured.