Psychometric Properties of the 14 Items Oral Health Impact Profile Questionnaire Translated into the Macedonian language.

Objective: Due to the consideration that oral/dental health is an important part of general health, well-being, and an individual's quality of life, the need for appropriate instruments assessing oral health-related quality of life is emphasized. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Oral health-related quality of life questionnaire consisting of 14 questions among the Macedonian language-speaking adults (OHIP-MAC 14). Material and methods: A total of 270 adults participated in the study. The reliability of the questionnaire was examined by testing the internal consistency and reproducibility (test-retest). The responsiveness of the instrument was tested by computing the pre-intervention and post-intervention OHIP-14 scores using the paired t-test followed by the determination of the effect-size. The two aspects of the construct validity were evaluated: concurrent validity and discriminative validity. Results: A concurrent validity analysis confirmed that the instrument performed well. Discriminative validity also confirmed good psychometric properties (P<0.01). The ICC statistics and the Cronbach alpha coefficients indicated the appropriate reliability of the instrument for the included groups of participants. The responsiveness of the questionnaire was also acceptable (P<0.01) demonstrating the large effect-size of 1.43. Conclusion: The OHIP 14 MAC showed acceptable psychometric properties and can be recommended as a valuable instrument in assessments of the Oral health-related quality of life in the Republic of North Macedonia.

Examining a domain-specific link between perceived control and conspiracy beliefs: a brief report in the context of COVID-19.

Although anecdotal evidence suggests that control-threatening situations are associated with an increase in conspiracy beliefs, existing research does not support this "compensatory control" hypothesis. In the current study, we test a more refined hypothesis: that the link between control threat and conspiracy beliefs is domain specific, such that perceived control in a particular domain should lead to conspiracy beliefs pertaining to that domain only. Moreover, given that conspiracy beliefs are stigmatized (i.e., not socially acceptable), we propose that they should be endorsed only when other compensatory systems are frustrated. We test these ideas in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants from North Macedonia and New Zealand, who differed in perceived government effectiveness, filled in a questionnaire measuring domain-specific and domain-general perceived control, as well as domain-specific and domain-general conspiracy beliefs. As expected, domain specificity of the control threat predicted domain-specific conspiracy beliefs in the Macedonian group only. The results have implication for compensatory control theory, suggesting that the compensatory process may not always be as fluid as believed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-01977-0.

Motivation to Follow a Career in Dentistry of Students in Three South-East European Countries.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate and compare the factors that motivated students to study dentistry in countries with similar background (Albania, Croatia and the Republic of Northern Macedonia) and to assess whether or not their motivation changed during time. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In 2014/2015, cross-sectional studies were conducted in state funded dental schools in Tirana (Albania), Zagreb (Croatia) and Skopje (Macedonia) to assess student views on their career motivation. All dental students from the first, third and final years of study were invited to participate. The participation was voluntary and anonymous. A five-item questionnaire was translated into languages of the participating countries. Ethics approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Skopje. The Chi square test was used to test if there were statistically significant differences in answers between students in 3 countries, furthermore between years of the study. RESULTS: The total number of respondents was 739 (319 in Tirana, 211 in Zagreb and 208 in Skopje) The differences in the answers between the first-year students from all three countries were statistically significant (χ2=82.65; p<.01). The most striking answer was to the question on parents' pressure to study dentistry, which was far more frequent in Tirana (up to 27.7%). A "positive image" was the most frequent response from students from Zagreb (up to 79.7%), but it declined from the first to the final year in Skopje. There were also significant differences between the schools within the 3rdand final years of study. CONCLUSIONS: A positive image of dental profession was the main reason for students studying dentistry at all three schools; as many as 97% of the students of the final year in Croatia, a member of the European Union (EU). In the two non-EU countries (Albania, Macedonia) it seemed that dental profession does not have such good status and student expectations are not being fulfilled, especially in Skopje (up to 33.9% willing to change their vocation and up to 64.5% lost their motivation to study) One of the strategies to improve the situation could be to include more clinical practice and to better organize the study..

Oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) in patients wearing fixed partial dentures.

The objective of this longitudinal study was to find out patients self-perception about their oral health condition before treatment, one week and one year after the prosthodontics treatment with fixed partial dentures (FPD) as well as to compare the outcomes with healthy patients, by identifying the changes in relevant aspects of quality of life. A total of 70 subjects-35 with necessity of fixed partial dentures (FPD) and 35 healthy individuals without any need for prosthetic treatment as a control group (CG) participated on a voluntarily base by responding the OHIP-MAC49 questionnaire for determining the oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL). The FPD group responded in three time intervals--before the FPD intervention, one week after and finally, one year after it. In order to examine the extent in the improvement of the self-rated quality of life, these three measures taken over different periods of time were compared. This set of three assessments from the FPD group was also compared with the average scores of the CG. The results have shown very fast improvement in almost all domains of OHRQoL defined by the instrument after applying FPD. The overall mean of experienced or perceived difficulties after the FPD intervention dropped from X=57.1 (SD=22.4) to X=40.3 (SD=17.2) only one week after the treatment, whereas one year later it was reduced to X=6.5 (SD=4.4). Exceptions of the quick recovery were only two domains, mainly connected with the difficulties caused by dental pain. One year after the treatment, the scores of each of the domains of OHRQoL of the FPD patients were the same with those of the healthy individuals. The results indicated very satisfactory impact of this kind of dental appliance on oral health related to quality of life of FPD wearers.

Assessing the psychometric characteristics of the Macedonian version of the Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaire (OHIP-MAC49).

AIM: The aim of this study was to adapt the Oral Health Impact Profile-49 (OHIP-49) for use by the Macedonian-speaking population and to assess its psychometric properties. METHODS: After piloting a back-translated version of the OHIP-49 questionnaire in Macedonian, the resulting Macedonian version of the Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaire (OHIP-MAC49) was administered to 247 patients who had been recruited in four groups: Group 1 was composed of 163 randomly chosen blood donors representing the general population; Group 2 was a convenience sample of 20 patients who attended a clinic for relief of dental pain; Group 3 was a sample of 29 prosthodontic patients; and Group 4 was composed of 35 students. In order to ensure that all questions were answered, data were gathered from participants in the four groups by trained and experienced interviewers. The internal reliability of the OHIP-MAC49 scale and its constituent seven subscales was calculated for Groups 1, 3, and 4 by using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and average inter-item correlations. The test-retest stability of the instrument was estimated by calculating the intra-class correlation coefficients and the limits of agreement of the scores obtained from the participants in Groups 3 and 4 in a repeat interview three to four weeks after the first interview. Convergent validity was evaluated by comparing OHIP-MAC49 scores-both total (0-4) and subscores (2-4) with self-reported health for Group 3 patients-using the Spearman coefficient of correlation. For the purpose of evaluating group validity, the OHIPMAC49 scores of Group 3 patients were compared by using Spearman's correlation coefficient. In addition, comparisons were made between patients with and without burning-mouth symptoms, temporomandibular pain, joint clicking, and oral habits (point-biserial correlation). The OHIP-MAC49 scores of subjects with and without dentures in Group 1 were compared by using point-biserial correlation. The responsiveness of the instrument was assessed by calculating the difference in OHIP-MAC49 means (total subscores) in Group 2 patients prior to and after treatment for relief of pain. RESULTS: The internal consistency of each subscale and the whole scale estimated was excellent. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for whole scale ranged from 0.92 to 0.95. The intra-class correlation coefficients ranged from 0.83 to 0.99, suggesting that the instrument had satisfactory reliability in terms of time stability. The questionnaire had acceptable responsiveness, confirmed by a significant differences (P<0.01) between the mean OHIP-MAC49 score at baseline and follow-up, both for the total sum (0-4) and the sum scores (2-4). Convergent validity, evaluated by comparing OHIP-MAC49 scores with self-reported oral health in Group 1 and Group 3 patients, was confirmed, because all correlation coefficients were significant (P<0.01). The results from testing the anticipated differences on the basis of seven self-reported indicators of oral health in Group 3 patients, as well as the differences in OHIP-MAC49 scores between subjects in general population who wore and did not wear dentures, strongly suggest that the instrument has satisfactory group validity. CONCLUSION: The Macedonian version of the OHIP-49 demonstrated satisfactory validity, excellent reliability, and sufficient responsiveness and therefore can be used for assessing the impact of oral health on different aspects of quality of life in Macedonia.