Summary
The measurement process consists in assigning numerical values to the patient’s characteristics, level of injury, diagnostic certainty of the disease, among others. However, there are complex phenomena that include broader concepts, which require the creation and validation of psychometric instruments for its measurement. The aim of this review is to present the concepts of validity and reliability of the instruments used in Dentistry. It exposes health definition of direct and indirect variables, the importance of using psychometric instruments, the definition of Validity and Reliability of an instrument and its different classifications (content validity, criterion and construct; reliability of the instrument and the observer). Furthermore, it presents some examples of the validation process of an instrument, its methodology and analysis of the results. Thus, we present the topics necessary to understand the measurement process used in our clinical work or dental research in order to identify appropriate instruments, considered valid and reliable for our needs.
KEY WORDS: validity, reliability, reproducibility of results, research, evidence-based dentistry, dentistry.
How to cite this article
ARAVENA, P. C.; MORAGA, J.; CARTES-VELÁSQUEZ, R. & MANTEROLA, C. Validity and Reliability in Dental Research. Int. J. Odontostomat., 8(1):69-75, 2014.
