The Dutch version of the Oral Health Assessment Tool: Translation and inter‐rater reliability among community nurses

Abstract

AbstractObjectivesTranslating the Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT) into Dutch and assessing the inter‐rater reliability among community nurses.MethodsThe original version of the OHAT was translated following the five stages of the ‘Guidelines for the Process of Cross‐Cultural Adaptation’. After a forward and backward translation, consensus on the pre‐final version was obtained in an expert panel discussion. This version was pre‐tested on its comprehensibility among 31 nurses and hereafter finalized. Then, inter‐rater reliability of the OHAT‐NL was determined by two trained nurses during oral assessments of 37 care‐dependent community‐dwelling older people. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the Cohen's kappa statistic for individual items were estimated.ResultsFeedback from nurses in the pre‐test did lead to minor changes of the OHAT‐NL. Inter‐rater reliability was good (ICC 0.79; 95% CI 0.63–0.89) on the total score. Agreement on item level ranged from fair to very good, the kappa ranged from 0.36–0.89.ConclusionsOHAT is now available in Dutch having good inter‐rater reliability among trained community nurses. Future research can further validate the OHAT‐NL and develop intervention according to total OHAT‐NL scores.