Dental health knowledge tests: their development, implementation and evaluation.

ABSTRACT

The present study discusses the development of dental health knowledge tests as part of an integrated dental health curriculum in the public school system of a rural community. It is part of a large project designed to test the effectiveness of a school-based dental health delivery system. Cognitive measures of dental health were designed to study the relationship of dental health knowledge to oral health behaviors. A review of the literature revealed no suitable dental health knowledge tests for grades K-6; new assessment measures were then developed by project staff. The tests consisted of 14 objectively scored tests--two parallel forms at each of the seven grade levels, K-6, and were administered four times to 1,942 students. Consistently, the tests have demonstrated high reliability estimates and low standard errors of measurement and indicate that the instruments are functioning as parallel forms and measuring the same dental concepts with equal precision.