Validity of the Oral Behaviours Checklist: correlations between OBC scores and intensity of facial pain

M. J. van der Meulen, F. Lobbezoo, I. H. A. Aartman, M. Naeije

The first purpose of this study was to translate the Oral Behaviours Checklist (OBC) into Dutch and to examine its psychometric properties. The second purpose was to examine the correlations between scores on the OBC and facial pain, while controlling for the possible confounding effects of psychosocial factors, such as stress, depression, somatisation and anxiety. The OBC was translated, following the international RDC/TMD consortium guidelines. Its psychometric properties were examined by assessing the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity [correlations between the OBC and the previously developed Oral Parafunctions Questionnaire (OPQ)]. Participants were 155 patients with TMD (77% female; mean age and s.d. = 43.6 and 14.4 years). The translation of the OBC into Dutch proceeded satisfactorily. The psychometric properties of the Dutch OBC were good; test-retest reliability was excellent (ICC = 0.86, P < 0.001). Concurrent validity was good: the correlation between the OBC and OPQ was high (r = 0.757, P < 0.001), while the correlations between individual items ranged from 0.389 to 0.892 (P < 0.001). Similar to previous Dutch studies using the OPQ, no significant correlation was found between oral parafunctions and facial pain (r = 0.069, P = 0.892). No significant correlations could be found between oral parafunctional behaviours and facial pain.