Validity of a self-reported questionnaire on periodontal disease for national epidemiological surveillance among Korean adults

Objectives: Clinical examination is considered the gold standard for monitoring periodontal disease.However, it requires significant resources.Self-reported assessment serves as a useful method for screening periodontal diseases in different cohorts.We aimed to evaluate the validity of a selfreported questionnaire for the surveillance of periodontal disease among Korean adults.Methods: The participants were 120 patients aged 19 years old who were examined using the community periodontal index.The questionnaire comprised 10 questions, translated from an English-version, that was used to identify periodontitis.The predictiveness of the measures from the self-reported questions was assessed by multivariable logistic regression modeling using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), sensitivity, and specificity.Results: For item 3, "Have you ever had treatment for gum disease, such as scaling and root planning", the adjusted odds ratio was 4.65; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-17.67;and AUROC, 0.82.The sensitivity and specificity of this item were, 0.93 and 0.42, respectively.In Kendall's Tau-b correlation analysis, items 1 ("Have gum disease") and 10 ("Periodontal treatment and surgery under anesthesia") had the strongest correlations with item 3, with correlation coefficients of 0.48 and 0.42, respectively.A model combining items 1, 3, and 10, adjusted for demographic variables, resulted in an AUROC of 0.86, sensitivity of 0.86, and specificity of 0.26.Conclusions: An adapted Korean version ("Have gum disease", "Treatment for gum disease, such as scaling and root planning", and "periodontal treatment under anesthesia") of the self-reported questionnaire demonstrated its capacity for epidemiological surveillance of periodontal disease in this study cohort.