Development and testing of revised practice belief scales among private general dental practitioners.
BACKGROUND
Practice beliefs have been related to service rate variation and appropriateness of care. The aim of this paper was to further develop practice belief scales by adding new items to an existing set and testing associations with dentist and practice characteristics, and services provided.


METHODS
Practice belief items were recorded on a five-point Likert scale using mailed questionnaires from a random sample of dentists in 2004 (response rate = 76.8 per cent).


RESULTS
Factor analysis yielded five factor-based scales, with three having adequate or near adequate internal consistency: Professional Autonomy (alpha = 0.72), Patient Focus (alpha = 0.71) and Preventive Orientation (alpha = 0.59). Responses were skewed towards strongly agree (scores 1-<2) for Professional Autonomy (60.6 per cent), Patient Focus (71.7 per cent) and Preventive Orientation (46.3 per cent). Higher percentages of dentists with strong agreement on Patient Focus were aged 30-39 and 60+ years, while lower percentages of dentists with strong agreement on Preventive Orientation were male (Chi-square, P < 0.05). Those strongly agreeing with the scales (scores 1-<2) had (Poisson regression; P < 0.05): lower rates of restorative, a rate ratio (RR) of 0.93, dentures (RR = 0.72) and extractions (RR = 0.63) for Professional Autonomy; higher rates of dentures (RR = 1.32), crowns (RR = 1.46) and extractions (RR = 1.47) for Patient Focus; and lower rates of restorative (RR = 0.88), dentures (RR = 0.78), crowns (RR = 0.72), extractions (RR = 0.50), endodontics (RR = 0.80), but a higher rate of scaling (RR = 1.13) for Preventive Orientation.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings confirmed some of an earlier factor structure of practice beliefs, extended the potential practice belief domains, and demonstrated associations with service rates.
Brennan
Ds
D
Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, School of Dentistry, The University of Adelaide, South Australia. david.brennan@adelaide.edu.au
Spencer
Aj
A
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001315:Australia; D003814:Dentistry, Operative / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005792:General Practice, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010358:Patient Participation; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011313:Preventive Dentistry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011331:Private Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D012044:Regression Analysis