title: Prospective patients rate practice factors: development of a questionnaire.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The importance that prospective patients place on practice characteristics when choosing an orthodontic practice has not been extensively reported. The objective of this research was to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire to address the relative importance of orthodontic office and doctor characteristics for prospective patients or parents of child patients during the initial orthodontic office consultation.
  
  
  METHODS
  An initial questionnaire, based on published literature, was field-tested on 16 subjects to assess its validity. Based on the field test, the questionnaire was modified and tested for reliability by using a test-retest method. The questionnaire covered the following areas: doctor, office, staff, and finances. The reliability study included 2 groups of subjects: 12 consecutive prospective adult patients and 41 consecutive parents of prospective child patients. The questionnaires consisted of 43 and 50 questions for the adult patients and the parents of patients, respectively. The subjects rated the importance of practice characteristics in their selection of an orthodontic practice using a 100-mm visual analog scale anchored at "not important at all" and "most important."
  
  
  RESULTS
  Reliability was analyzed by using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Summary scores of all 53 subjects showed excellent reliability (ICC, 0.88; range, 0.61-1.0). Summary scores of all 50 questions showed acceptable reliability (ICC, 0.70; range, 0.45-0.88). Twenty-one questions had excellent reliability (ICC, >.75), and 29 questions had fair-to-good reliability (ICC, 0.41-0.75). No questions showed poor reliability (ICC, <0.4).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The pilot study data indicated that the overall reliability of the questionnaire is acceptable.
authors.affiliation: Division of Orthodontics, College of Dentistry, The Ohio State University, USA.
authors.forename: Brian Lingg
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: St Louis
authors.forename: Allen R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Firestone
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: Shiva
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shanker
authors.forename: Katherine W L
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Vig
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003770:Dental Offices; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005250:Fees, Dental; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009970:Orthodontics; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011215:Practice Management, Dental; D011331:Private Practice; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires