Parental–Caregivers Perceptions Questionnaire (P-CPQ): translation and evaluation of psychometric properties of the French version of the questionnaire

The Parental–Caregivers Perceptions Questionnaire (P-CPQ) is a measure of parental/caregivers’ perceptions of the impact of children’s oral health on quality of life. The aim of the study was evaluate the psychometric properties of the French version of the P-CPQ.

The original P-CPQ was developed in English language and has 31 items divided into four sub-scales. This cross-sectional study used the translation-back translation method. The translated questionnaire was pretested on 14 parents-caregivers to obtain the final French version. The psychometric properties were tested on 142 parents/caregivers of three clinical groups of children from 8 to 10 years old without dental/facial anomalies (presumed healthy), with oral-facial clefts and with oral-dental anomalies linked to a rare disease other than cleft, approached in the waiting room of the Centre of the Hospital Rothschild in Paris, France, where the children attended treatment. Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest reliability by Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC). Construct validity was measured by correlations between the total scores and the global ratings of oral health and overall wellbeing, and tested using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the factorial structure was evaluated by the partial confirmatory factor analysis (PCFA). Discriminant validity was determined using Kruskall-Wallis test.

The mean (standard deviation) P-CPQ score was 18.73(18.79). Internal consistency was confirmed by a Cronbach alpha of 0.85. The test-retest reliability revealed that the responses to items were satisfactorily stable (ICC = 0.88). Construct validity was demonstrated by significant correlation coefficients between the total scale and the global ratings (r = 0.54 and 0.46; p < 0.001). Factor analysis with Principal Component Analysis extracted seven factors explaining 65.23% cumulative variance. Goodness-of-fit indices for partial confirmatory factor analysis were satisfactory for the 7-factors model of the French-PCPQ version. There were statistically significant differences between clinical groups regarding the total scale, thus demonstrating discriminant validity (p < 0.001).

This French P-CPQ version showed reliability and validity comparable to the previous versions. However, the cross-cultural structure of the subscales should be further evaluated.