September 2012

Objectives: The objective of the study was to test the applicability of abbreviated version of the oral impact on daily performance (OIDP) inventory among the adults visiting dental outreach centre in Karnataka, South India. Basic Research Design: Cross sectional study. Clinical setting: Dental outreach centre in Udupi District, Karnataka. Participants: 312 adults aged 35-44 years attending the centre. Interventions: Face-to-face interview followed by oral health examination. The questionnaire in Kannada version of OIDP, perceived general and oral health and satisfaction with dental appearance were used. Main outcome measures: Reliability and Validity of OIDP instrument, Prevalence of oral impacts in study population. Results: Majority of the participants (71.2%) reported oral health problems affecting at least one daily performance in the 6 months preceding the survey. The performance most affected was ‘eating’ (52.2%) followed by ‘cleaning teeth’ (32.4%). Cronbach’s alpha for the OIDP frequency items was 0.70. Construct validity was proved by significant association of OIDP scores and self-rated oral, general health status and perceived satisfaction with appearance of teeth; with those more satisfied having fewer oral impacts (p<0.001). Criterion validity was demonstrated in that the OIDP scores increased significantly as the number of decayed and missing teeth increased (p<0.001). Conclusion: The Kannada version of OIDP had excellent psychometric properties for applicability among the adults in Karnataka. Thus, the study highlighted the limits of focusing exclusively on normative needs and suggested the incorporation of oral quality of life measures into the oral healthcare services. Key words: oral impacts, socio-dental indicators, quality of life, Kannada OIDP