Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability of a Korean version of the jaw Functional Limitation Scale (JFLS) in dental college students.
Methods: Using a standard ´forward-backward´ translation procedure, the English version of the JFLS questionnaire was translated into Korean. Three-hundred sixty dental college students of Seoul National University were administered 21 items of the JFLS questionnaire representing domains of mastication, opening, verbal and emotional expression, and global jaw limitation. The same subjects were tested again 7 days later to determine the reliability of Korean version of the JFLS.
Results: The internal consistency reliability of each domain was 0.79 (mastication), 0.60 (opening), OBI (verbal and emotional expression), and 0.71 (global jaw limitation) using the Cronbach´ s alpha coefficient of the average inter-item correlation. Test-retest reliability for each domain of mastication, opening, verbal and emotional expression, and global jaw limitation was 0.83, 0.77, 0.80, and 0.86, respectively.
Conclusions: The Korean version of the JFLS demonstrated a good reliability in the largely healthy group of subjects. It might be used as a valuable instrument for measuring functional disability of the jaw in the Korean population. Further research on more diverse groups of subjects, including individuals with jaw disorders, is needed, and broad applications of the JFLS to the various orofacial pain disorder conditions are expected
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