title: Attitudes to dental hygienists: evaluation of the Dental Hygienist Beliefs Survey in a Swedish population of patients and students.
abstract: The aim was to evaluate and test the psychometric properties of the Dental Hygienist Beliefs Survey (DHBS) in a Swedish sample of different patient groups and students. It was hypothesized that negative dental hygienist beliefs would discriminate between fearful and non-fearful study groups. The DHBS was distributed together with the revised Dental Beliefs Survey (DBS-R) and the Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS). The study sample included 394 subjects (130 students, 144 general dental patients, 90 periodontal patients and 30 patients on a waiting list for dental fear treatment). The results verified that the DHBS discriminates well between dentally fearful and non-fearful study groups. The DHBS had high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.96-0.98) in all the groups. The correlation between the DHBS and the DBS-R was high (rho = 0.82, P < 0.001). Furthermore, the DHBS correlated significantly with the DAS, as well as with a low but significant correlation to age (more negative attitudes in younger age groups) and gender (more negative attitudes amongst women). Regression analysis showed that gender and the DHBS items: 23, 16 and 28, i.e. items related to feeling helpless, worries/fears not being taken seriously and fear about 'bad news' possibly preventing treatment, were the most important predictors of dental fear. The results suggest that the DHBS may be a valid and reliable scale to use in order to assess patient's specific attitudes to dental hygienists. However, the psychometric properties including test-retest analysis and the underlying factor structure of the DHBS need to be further explored.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, Institute of Odontology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden. kajsa.henning.abrahamsson@odontologi.gu.se
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Abrahamsson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stenman
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohrn
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hakeberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001290:Attitude; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D003756:Dental Hygienists; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008347:Manifest Anxiety Scale; D008875:Middle Aged; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden