Development of Cartoon-based Dental Anxiety Scale for Children: Validation and Reliability
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Background: Dental fear and anxiety (DFA) is a common, deterring problem affecting children, which has a significant negative impact on children's oral health, leading to avoidance of dental care, poor dental hygiene, and an increased risk of dental caries and other oral health problems. The Oddbods DFA assessment is an innovative, child-friendly instrument that has been developed to assess DFA in children. Aim: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the scale, and to examine the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and criterion and construct validity of the scale. Materials and methods: -test were used. For evaluating the criterion validity, the Spearman correlation coefficient was used. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test was used in an exploratory factor analysis to determine whether the sample size was sufficient for the factor analysis. Results: The scale had a high positive correlation with the modified child dental anxiety scale (MCDAS), which is considered a gold standard, and a higher Cronbach's α value, which proved its internal consistency. It also showed a significant difference between anxious and nonanxious children, but there were no differences in the scores with respect to age. Conclusion: The present scale proved to be a very effective tool for assessing DFA among young children. Clinical significance: It is important to identify children at risk of dental anxiety. This scale helps to follow-up on children for their innate DFA, evaluate the efficacy of dental anxiety interventions, enhance communication, and improve access to dental care by encouraging children to seek dental care without fear or hesitation, promoting preventive care and better oral health outcomes. How to cite this article: Fathima A, Ravikumar R, Chellappa LR. Development of Cartoon-based Dental Anxiety Scale for Children: Validation and Reliability. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2024;17(7):796-801.
Authors: Ayesha Fathima, Ramesh Ravikumar, Lalitha Rani Chellappa
Institution: Saveetha University
Language: English
Subfield: Oral Surgery
Field: Dentistry
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4402493844