Psychometric properties of dental fear survey in Serbian population

Abstract

Introduction. Between 6 and 15% of the adult population throughout the world faces with the fear of dentists. Fear of dentists directly correlates with the pain experienced during previous visits to the dentist. Objective. The aim of the study was to assess the validity, reliability and factor structure of the Serbian version of the Dental Fear Survey on a sample of uni-versity and high school students. Method. Two hundred and fifty stu-dents and high school students partici-pated in the study and completed the Ser-bian version of the Dental Fear Survey. Results. This study’s sample showed excellent internal consistency (Cron-bach’s alpha = 0.98). Descriptive statisics and multinomial logistic regression were calculated; a significance level of p < 0.05 was used for all tests. A high fear cut-off point score was determined by calculating the receiver operating char-acteristic (ROC) curve for the DFS. The ROC curve indicated that a DFS score ≥ 47 corresponds to a sensitivity of 86.1% and a specificity of 88.2%. A large num-ber of participants (n = 102; 40.8%) re-ported no fear of going to the dentist. The factor analyses resulted in three factors: first represents fear of certain stimulus or situation, second represents anticipatory fear which causes dentist avoidance, and third stands for psychological excitement caused by dental procedures.Conclusion. DFS satisfies all the crite-ria of successful validation among Ser-bian population of university and high-school students. The Serbian version of the DFS will be helpful for the evaluation of fear of dental procedures within this population. DFS is an easily applicable, short and reliable instrument and it can enable physicians to assess fear and anx-iety symptoms in a targeted and precise manner.