[Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the postoperative recovery in children scale for dental treatment under general anesthesia (PRiC-DTGA) in Chinese children].

Objective: To translate and adapt the postoperative recovery in children (PRiC) scale, developing a Chinese version for children undergoing dental treatment under general anesthesia (PRiC-DTGA) with validated psychometric properties. Methods: The PRiC scale underwent forward-backward translation using Brislin's model. A convenience sample of DTGA patients from the Center for Comfortable Dental Treatment (Anesthesiology Department), School of Stomatology of Air Force Medical University was enrolled for a cross-sectional survey on postoperative complications. Delphi expert consultation informed cultural adaptation based on survey findings to develop the PRiC-DTGA Chinese version. Psychometric validation included reliability and validity testing in a separate DTGA cohort at the same center (April-October 2024). Results: Results from the cross-sectionalsurvey of 231 children showed that 82.7% (191/231) of them hadat least one postoperative complication within 72 hours, and these complications were mainly mild local symptoms. Additionally, 358 copies of the Chinese version of the PRiC-DTGA scale were distributed; 21 invalid questionnaires with incomplete information were excluded, and a total of 337 cases were included inthe study. The final PRiC-DTGA comprised 22 items across three dimensions: physical comfort, social ability, and negative emotional. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) confirmed all factor loadings>0.4. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated adequate fit: χ²/df=1.665, tucker-Lewis index (TLI)=0.924, comparative fit index (CFI)=0.896, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR)=0.041, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)=0.044 (90% CI: 0.035-0.053). Reliability was strong: Cronbach's α (total scale)=0.853, subscale α=0.632-0.723, split-half reliability=0.824. Validity indices met standards: scale-content validity index (S-CVI)=0.909, Item-CVI range=0.944-1.000, average variance extracted (AVE)=0.473-0.501, composite reliability (CR)=0.830-0.913. Conclusions: The systematically adapted PRiC-DTGA demonstrates robust reliability and validity, serving as an effective tool for assessing postoperative recovery quality in Chinese children following DTGA.