Translation and validation of the Revised Dental Beliefs Survey (DBS-R) in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Patient perceptions of behaviours and attitudes of dentists are associated with dental fear and poor dental attendance in Western countries. However, there is a paucity of research exploring patient perceptions of the dentist in China. One reason for this may be the lack of a valid and reliable scale in Chinese (Standard Mandarin) to measure this. This study aimed to translate the Revised Dental Beliefs Survey (DBS-R) into Chinese and then explore the reliability and validity of this measure (both the short and longer versions) in a Chinese population. We translated the DBS-R using the forwards-backwards method and pilot tested it on a small sample of adults in China. Following this, 480 Chinese adults completed the newly translated scale, as well as well as a standardised dental anxiety questionnaire (the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale Chinese version) to test convergent validity. 109 participants completed the DBS-R again 2 weeks later for test-retest reliability. Both versions of the Chinese DBS-R were internally consistent and demonstrated convergent validity; test-retest reliability was also good. Both versions of the scale performed similarly, but for now we would suggest the 28-item version may be superior as items relating to the technical competence of the dentist appear important to Chinese adults.