Community Dental Health

cover art

Cover Date:
September 2009
Print ISSN:
0265 539X
Vol:
26
Issue:
3

Development of a psychometric scale to assess satisfaction with dental care among Sri Lankans

Objective: To develop and validate a psychometric scale to assess dental satisfaction among Sri Lankans. Design: A population based cross sectional study, where the data were collected by a postal questionnaire. A 22-item scale was developed to measure dental satisfaction. Participants: 1,000 Sri Lankans aged 18-75 years, selected by cluster sampling with probability proportionate to size technique, using National Voters’ register. Outcome measures: Reliability of the scale was assessed by internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha and corrected item-total correlations. Construct validity was determined by factor analysis and acceptability was assessed by percentage of item-specific non-response. Results: The overall response rate was 30.9%. Among respondents, analysis was limited to dental care users within two years (n=117). Item-specific non-response was low, ranging from 3.4% to 9.4%. Four (negatively worded) items were removed from the scale due to poor internal consistency (corrected item-total correlations <0.2). After removal, corrected item-total correlations of remaining 18 items were improved, ranging from 0.23 to 0.76. Factor analysis revealed a four factor solution, interpreted as: “outcome of care/clinic context” (8-items), “factors related to treatment process” (7-items), “convenience” (2-items) and “cost of care” (single item). Identified factors explained 64.56% of the variance of the scale. The Cronbach’s alpha values for the first three dimensions were 0.90, 0.87 and 0.60 respectively and for the overall construct it was 0.91. Conclusions: The present scale appeared to be a valid and reliable instrument for measuring dental satisfaction among Sri Lankans, but merits further refinements to explore detailed aspects of it.

Keywords: Dental satisfaction, factor analysis, reliability, validity.

Article Price
£15.00
Institution Article Price
£
Page Start
150
Page End
156
Authors
I.R. Perera, U.S. Usgodaarachchi

Articles from this issue

  • Title
  • Pg. Start
  • Pg. End

  1. Editorial - The contributions of Edward H. Angle to dental public health
  2. 130
  3. 131

  1. The fractional urinary fluoride excretion of adults consuming naturally and artificially fluoridated water and the influence of water hardness: A randomized trial.
  2. 132
  3. 137

  1. The prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis in the high and low altitude parts of Central Plateau, Nigeria
  2. 138
  3. 142

  1. Prevalence of enamel defects related to pre-, peri- and postnatal factors in a Brazilian population.
  2. 143
  3. 149

  1. Development of a psychometric scale to assess satisfaction with dental care among Sri Lankans
  2. 150
  3. 156

  1. Consent of older children participating in BASCD coordinated dental epidemiology surveys in Wales.
  2. 157
  3. 161

  1. Predicting relative need for urgent dental care
  2. 162
  3. 169

  1. A comparison of Personal Dental Service (PDS) and General Dental Service (GDS) patients in terms of reported interventions, oral health and dentists’ perceptions
  2. 170
  3. 176

  1. Hopelessness, depression and oral health concerns reported by community dwelling older Australians
  2. 177
  3. 182

  1. Higher-order exploratory factor analysis of the Dental Subscale of Children’s Fear Survey Schedule in a Taiwanese population.
  2. 183
  3. 187

  1. Opportunities and challenges to promoting oral health in primary schools
  2. 188
  3. 192