Development and preliminary psychometric evaluation of an oral health questionnaire for chronic kidney disease (CKD-OHQ)

Oral health problems are common among patients with chronic kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease is associated with a broad range of oral manifestations, while poor oral health may accelerate chronic kidney disease progression, increase the risk of complications, and contribute to the overall disease burden. Despite their clinical importance, oral health problems often receive limited attention in routine nephrology care. Study aimed to develop and conduct a preliminary psychometric evaluation of the Chronic Kidney Disease Oral Health Questionnaire to assess nephrology healthcare professionals’ knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported practices regarding oral health management in patients with. The initial questionnaire was developed using a knowledge-attitude-practice framework, a literature review, and two rounds of expert consultation. In October 2025, the preliminary questionnaire was administered online to nephrology healthcare professionals in Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces, China. Content and face validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability were evaluated. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine the construct validity of the attitude and practice dimensions. The questionnaire comprised 25 items across three dimensions. A total of 169 valid responses were included. The scale-level content validity index was 0.95. Cronbach’s α coefficients were 0.97 for the attitude dimension and 0.98 for the practice dimension, whereas the Kuder–Richardson Formula 20 coefficient for the knowledge dimension was 0.46. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the total questionnaire was 0.95. Exploratory factor analysis of the attitude and practice items identified two factors that explained 83.34% of the total variance. The questionnaire offers a preliminary structured approach to assessing nephrology healthcare professionals’ knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported practices regarding oral health management in patients with CKD. The findings provide initial evidence of its measurement properties while indicating the need for further refinement and validation in larger, more diverse, and independently recruited samples before wider application.