Introducing a Valid Questionnaire for Assessment of Perceived Oral Health Care Needs, Barriers to Accessing Oral Health Care Services and Its Utility

Background: Need assessment plays a key role in promoting oral health care delivery system. Also by understanding the perceived barriers to dental care access, more effective steps can be taken to overcome these challenges. The aim of this study was to prepare a comprehensive valid questionnaire to evaluate the perceived oral health care needs, barriers in oral health care access and it's utility. Methods: After reviewing the related articles a questionnaire including questions about demographic characteristics, perceived oral health care needs, barriers to oral health care access, service preferences was designed. In order to standardize and validate the questionnaire, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Qualitative assessment of the content and face validity was done by a panel of experts. Quantitative approach (Including Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and Content Validity index (CVI)) were used to measure the content validity. Reliability assessment was done by test-retest method and use of Cronbach's alpha. Result: Based on the validation results, the questionnaire was modified and revised. According to the CVR, two questions were deleted and other questions achieved minimum acceptable CVR scores. According to the CVI, all the questions achieved minimal necessary score for relevancy, clarity and simplicity. The result of Cronbach's alpha coefficient and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient implied acceptable reliability. Conclusion: The final questionnaire is a comprehensive, valid and reliable instrument for assessing perceived oral health care needs, barriers to oral health care access, its utility and preferences.