Development of Cartoon-based Dental Anxiety Scale for Children: Validation and Reliability.

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: This study has assessed the reliability, criterion validity, and construct validity of the novel Oddbods anxiety assessment scale among 4-6-year-old children. Different samples were recruited to assess different criteria. A normative study was done to assess the distribution of age of the children according to anxiety levels. For assessing the test's retest reliability statistically, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 23.0, Cronbach's α, interclass correlation coefficient, and t-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.