A new halitosis screening tool: halitosis finding score derivation and validation

Abstract

Objective

The lack of a valid and appropriate halitosis screening survey prompted us to develop and validate a simple, 15-item questionnaire to be used as a screening tool to score halitosis for the daily practise.

Methods

After calculating the sample size, 200 participants were included in the study. All participants filled a 15-item questionnaire with the subsequent measurements of halitosis through the organoleptic scoring system and a halimeter. The application of questionnaire and the halitosis measurements were repeated 15 days after the first control.

Results

Mann–Whitney’s U test was statistically significant between the halimeter measurements and Halfins scores (p=.000, p<.05). ROC curve is drawn due to halitometer analyses. The cut-off point was determined such as Halfins scores greater than 14 indicated halitosis (65.75 sensitivity, 66.04 specificity). The content validation and concurrent validity were proven successful.

Conclusions

A new halitosis-specific screening tool called Halfins was proven as a valid diagnostic tool for measuring halitosis in the present study. Nevertheless, we believe this questionnaire could be used as complementary tool for the diagnosis of halitosis, seeing as its use alone is not able to firmly conclude the presence of halitosis in all cases, an organoleptic test or VSC assessment would still be necessary.

Keywords:

• Halitosis
• patient health questionnaire
• validation study

Acknowledgements

Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (Okmeydani Training and Research Hospital Ethical 48670771-514.10 reference number) and with Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983 or comparable ethical standards.

Consent to participate: Informed consents were taken from the participants/legal guardians/parents prior to examinations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Berk Gurpinar (Study design, manuscript preparation); Tolgar Lutfi Kumral (Data analysing, manuscript preparation); Huseyin Sarı (Data collection); Belgin Tutar (Data collection) and Yavuz Uyar (Critical review, finalize).

Data availability statement

Data collected during the trial, together with the study protocol and statistical analysis plan will be available immediately following the publication for meta-analysis to the researchers who provide a methodologically sound proposal directed to the e-mail address [email protected].