Validation of the Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire in the Australian population

Abstract

The Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire (PIDAQ) is an instrument to assess the subjective perception need for orthodontic treatment. The study aimed to determine the psychometric validity and reliability of PIDAQ in Australian adults. Data were collected from the National Dental Telephone Interview Survey in 2013. The PIDAQ was used, comprising 4 conceptual domains: self-confidence, social impact, psychological impact, and esthetic concern. Psychometric sensitivity was estimated for each item. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to determine factorial validity in which the ratio of chi-square by degrees of freedom, comparative fit, and root mean square error of approximation were used as indexes of the goodness of fit. Convergent validity was estimated from the average variance extracted and composite reliability, whereas internal consistency was estimated by Cronbach standardized alpha. The dataset comprised 2936 Australian adults aged ≥18 years and separated randomly into 2 subdata sets. The kurtosis and skewness values indicate an approximation to a normal distribution for each item, with acceptable thresholds for the goodness of fit and convergent validity (average variance extracted ≥0.50 and composite reliability ≥0.70), and discriminant validity was also demonstrated. Internal consistency was adequate in the 4 conceptual domains for PIDAQ for both subdata sets, with Cronbach standardized alpha being ≥0.70. The psychometric sensitivity, validity, and reliability of the PIDAQ instrument in a sample of the Australian adult population were found to be adequate. Both subdata sets drawn from the sample demonstrated acceptable goodness of fit and internal consistency.