Measuring oral health should not be confined exclusively to the use of clinically normative indicators, but oral hygiene behavior is also the one indicator of oral health. The Oral Hygiene Behavior (OHB) index can be used to measure oral self-care behavior and have been used and validated in Western populations. To use a scale in a different groups of young adolescents in Indonesian, it is necessary to re-establish its psychometric properties. This study was conducted to estimate the psychometric reliability and validity after adapting the OHB index to the Indonesian language.

The OHB index questionnaire was translated to Indonesian, and then given to 251 young adolescents aged 13-15 years from junior high school in Bandung, Indonesia. The psychometric properties of the Indonesian version of OHB Index were evaluated to test the reliability and validity. The study focused on validating the Indonesian version of the OHB Index, with clinical determinants (dental plaque score). Clinical examination of dental plaque was assessed by O'Leary Plaque Index.