The relationship of dental caries and dental fear in Malaysian adolescents: a latent variable approach

BMC Oral Health

Ruth Freeman¹  Gerry Humphris²  Ai Leng Ong³  Rashidah Esa⁴ 

[1] Dental Health Services Research Unit, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, UK;Bute Medical School, University of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, UK;Dental Department, Ministry of Health, Bayan Baru, Penang, Malaysia;Department of Community Oral Health & Clinical Prevention, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

关键词: Adolescents;    Dental fear;    DMFT;   

Others  :  1121445
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6831-14-19

 received in 2013-11-19, accepted in 2014-03-07,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

To investigate the role of geography (place of residence) as a moderator in the relationship between dental caries disease and treatment experience and dental fear in 16-year-olds living in Malaysia.

Methods

A multi-stage-stratified sampling method was employed. Five hundred and three, 16-year-olds from 6 government secondary schools participated in this study. The questionnaire examined participants’ demographic profile and assessed their dental fear using the Dental Fear Survey (DFS). The clinical examination consisted of the DMFT as the outcome measure of dental caries disease and treatment experience by a single examiner (ICC = 0.98). Structural equation modelling inspected the relationship between dental fear and dental caries disease and treatment experience.

Results

The mean DMFT was 2.76 (SD 3.25). The DT, MT and FT components were 0.64 (SD 1.25), 0.14 (SD 0.56) and 1.98 (SD 2.43) respectively. Rural compared with urban adolescents had significantly greater mean numbers of decayed and missing teeth. The mean DFS score was 40.8 (SD 12.4). Rural compared with urban adolescents had significantly higher mean scores for physical symptoms of dental fear. The correlation between dental fear (DFS) and dental caries disease and treatment experience (DMFT) was 0.29, p < 0.0001. The structural equation model fitted the raw data well (χ² = 9.20, df = 8, p = 0.34). All components of DMFT were closely associated in equal strength to the unidimensional hypothetical latent variable of dental caries disease and treatment experience. The strength of the relationship between dental fear and dental caries disease and treatment experience varied in accordance with place of residence.

Conclusion

In conclusion a relationship between dental fear and dental caries disease and treatment experience was shown to exist in 16-year-old adolescents living in Malaysia. This study showed that the rural–urban dichotomy acted as a moderator upon this relationship.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Esa et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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