Abstract
BackgroundDental fear has not only been linked to poor dental health in children but also persists across the lifespan, if unaddressed, and can continue to affect oral, systemic, and psychological health. The aim of this study was to assess the factor structure of the Arabic version of the Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS), and to assess the difference in factor structure between boys and girls.MethodsParticipants were 220 consecutive paediatric dental patients 6–12 years old seeking dental care at the Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. Participants completed the 15-item Arabic version of the CFSS-DS questionnaire at the end of the visit. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. Factor analysis (principal components, varimax rotation) was employed to assess the factor structure of the scale.ResultsThe Cronbach’s alpha was 0.86. Four factors with eigenvalues above 1.00 were identified, which collectively explained 64.45% of the variance. These factors were as follows: Factor 1, ‘fear of usual dental procedures’ consisted of 8 items such as ‘drilling’ and ‘having to open the mouth’, Factor 2, ‘fear of health care personnel and injections’ consisted of three items, Factor 3, ‘fear of strangers’, consisted of 2 items. Factor 4, ‘fear of general medical aspects of treatment’, consisted of 2 items. Notably, four factors of dental fear were found in girls, while five were found in boys.ConclusionsFour factors of different strength pertaining to dental fear were identified in Arabic-speaking children, indicating a simple structure. Most items loaded high on the factor related to fear of usual dental procedures. The fear-provoking aspects of dental procedures differed in boys and girls. Use of the scale may enable dentists to determine the item/s of dental treatment that a given child finds most fear-provoking and guide the child’s behaviour accordingly.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1472-6831-14-118) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Dental fear has been linked to poor dental health in children and persists across the lifespan, if unaddressed, and can continue to affect oral, systemic, and psychological health
Our previous study reported that the Arabic version of the Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) had high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.86), high test-retest reliability, and acceptable construct and criterion validity [i.e. significant correlations using Spearman’s rho were found between total fear score and both willingness to return to the dentist (r = 0.50, p < 0.001) and the Frankl behaviour rating scale (r = −0.54, p < 0.001)] [19]
The total mean CFSS-DS score was 23.50 ± 7.66 for boys and 23.51 ± 7.85 for girls, with no statistically significant difference observed between the two groups (P = 0.23)
Summary
Dental fear has been linked to poor dental health in children and persists across the lifespan, if unaddressed, and can continue to affect oral, systemic, and psychological health. The aim of this study was to assess the factor structure of the Arabic version of the Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS), and to assess the difference in factor structure between boys and girls. Fearful children visit the dentist less regularly and have more dental caries compared to non-fearful children [1]. Child dental fear and the tendency for parents to avoid bringing their fearful child to dental visits were among the risk indicators for caries in children [2]. Fear in children can be measured by many methods These include physiological measurements, observational methods, and psychometric assessments, such as the Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS [5]). The CFSS-DS shows high internal consistency, high test re-test reliability, and adequate construct and criterion validity in English as well as in several other languages [5,10,11,12,13,14]
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