Quality of life evaluation in the oral health field : Establishment of national norms and databank construction

本研究旨在为促进日本口腔健康领域的生活质量研究奠定基础。关于2005-2007年的研究成果，首先，完成了口腔健康综合指数(GOHAI)的全国常模，作为与口腔健康相关的生活质量量表，并在网站上向公众开放。到目前为止，还没有关于在日本或其他国家建立口腔健康相关生活质量量表的国家常模的研究。在心理测量学分析的口腔健康相关生活质量量表中，GOHAI得到了广泛的研究，并拥有最长的历史。在世界上率先用日语建立国家规范，可能对开创性的生态研究也很重要。在以全国普通人群为对照的研究中，可以使用已建立的国家常模作为替代，这可能有助于研究之间的进行和比较，并提供具有较高外部效度的结果。这一时期的第二项成果是使用日本版的GOHAI进行各种调查和研究，并广泛收集数据。在数据库建设方面，我们将继续推进工作，并在其他领域研究的基础上，积极评估信息提供的方法。第三项成就是建立了日语版的日常表现口头影响量表(OIDP)，该量表与GOHAI一起在世界上广泛使用，并收集了调查数据。日本版的GOHAI和OIDP也通过它们的同时使用进行了比较。我们认为，量表选择的增加和量表之间特征的比较可能有助于生活质量研究的发展。

This study aims at forming a basis for the promotion of Quality of life (QOL) studies in the oral health field in Japan. Concerning the achievements of studies in 2005-2007, first of all, the national norms of the General Oral Health Index (GOHAI) as an oral health-related QOL scale were completed and opened to public viewing on the Website. There had been no studies up to that point on the establishment of national norms in oral health-related QOL scales in Japan or other countries. The GOHAI has been extensively studied and has the longest history among oral health-related QOL scales that have been psychometrically analyzed. The establishment of national norms in Japanese, taking the initiative in the world, may also be important in pioneering ecological studies. In studies using general populations in the nation as a control group, established national norms can be used as substitutes, which may facilitate the conducting of and comparisons among studies, and provide results with high external validity.The second achievement during this period involved various surveys and studies performed using the Japanese version of the GOHAI and extensive data collection. For databank construction, we intend to continue to advance work, and also actively evaluate methods of information provision based on previous studies in other fields. The third achievement was the establishment of the Japanese version of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP), which, together with the GOHAI, is widely used in the world, and survey data collection. The Japanese version of the GOHAI and that of the OIDP were also compared by their simultaneous use. We consider that an increase in scale choices and the comparison of characteristics among scales may contribute to the development of QOL studies.