OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper was to model the consequences of dental conditions from an empirical basis and to test the model’s ability to predict response combinations. METHODS: The model was derived from responses to the short-form Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP14) obtained from a UK population sample of 5281 dentate adults. This model was then used to predict OHIP14 response combinations obtained from a sample of 3973 dentate and edentulous adults in Australia.

FINDINGS: The empirically derived population-response model accounted for over 98% of response combinations of Australian dentate adults.

CONCLUSIONS: The empirically derived model followed a similar hierarchical pattern to the base model underlying the long-form version of the measure (thereby supporting the validity of the OHIP14 measure) and was strongly predictive of the pattern of responses obtained from Australian adults.

Nuttall NM, Slade GD, Sanders AE, Steele JG, Allen PF, Lahti S

Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2006;34(1):18-24.