Oral health is one of the most urgent health issues worldwide, children and juveniles with complex impairments being at particular risk. The accurate assessment of needs relating to oral hygiene and individual risks is likely to improve the quality of life and care of such patients. So far, however, hardly any assessment instruments have been on hand. While the GOSH Oral Assessment Guide has been successfully tested in paediatric oncology, it has until now only been available in English. Target

more »

... was translation of the GOSH OAG from English into German and adaptation of the German version to the target group of children and juveniles with complex impairments. The translation, consisting in translation and retranslation by two translators respectively, was performed according to the ISPOR guidelines. The translated instrument was reviewed through guided discussion by a German-speaking focus group (n = 9 paediatric oncology care attendants). Content validity (CVI) was verified by mail in two expert rounds (n = 15 and n = 13 respectively) on the basis of the Lynn process. The quantitative (calculation of the CVI results) and qualitative evaluation (implementation of expert suggestions) resulted in the adaptation of the scale to the new target group. With the translated scale, a German instrument with only minor deviations from the original version is now available for paediatric oncology. The expert rounds for verification of content validity have produced a study version of the scale with specified attributions of findings and adapted diagnosis methods as well as a reduced number of categories for oral health assessment (n = 7 instead of 8) in the new target group. The first round of CVI verification resulted in CVI values at item level ranging from 0.25 to 1.0, with values of the overall scale between 0.7833 and 1.0. All adapted items remaining after the first round have a CVI of >0.78 (range 0.8462-1.0). The SVI for the individual item groups is in all cases above the required value of 0.9. This study version o [...]