Validation of the Jaw and Facial Activities Limitation (JFAL) Questionnaire for Orofacial Pain Patients

Orofacial pain remains one of the most complained dental abnormalities that resulted in the limitation of the jaw and facial activities of the sufferer. Therefore, a simple yet effective questionnaire that can be used by dental professionals to evaluate the level of the jaw and facial activity limitation of orofacial patients is needed.

The objective of the current study was to test the validity and reliability of the jaw and facial activities limitation questionnaire of orofacial pain patients.

One hundred and two(33 male: 69 female) patients aged 18 to 45-year-old (mean: 28.39; standard deviation (SD): 8.23) with orofacial pain(pain in the oral or facial area that was experienced by the participant at the time of data collection) were recruited. The questionnaire consists of seven questions; the first six questions evaluate the patient’s jaw activity whilst the seventh question evaluates the patient’s facial activity through smiling ability. Each question is accompanied by four Likert-type scale answers, which are “not at all”, “a little bit”, “moderately”, and “a lot”. Reliability was measured by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha while validity was measured by using the Pearson’s correlation.

Cronbach’s alpha measurement revealed a coefficient of 0.80 whilst Pearson correlation analysis showed that the r-value for each question was higher than the r table value (0.230), confirming the validity of all questions. All p-values were < 0.05.

Validity and reliability testing of the current questionnaire revealed that the questionnaire was proven to be valid and reliable.