title: Toward the validation of visual analogue scale for anxiety.
abstract: Anxiety is a relevant problem in dental practice. The Visual Analogue Scale for Anxiety (VAS-A), introduced in dentistry in 1988, has not yet been validated in large series. The aim of this study is to check VAS-A effectiveness in more than 1000 patients submitted to implantology. The VAS-A and the Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) were administered preoperatively to 1114 patients (459 males and 655 females, age 54.7 ± 13.1 years). Statistical analysis was conducted with Pearson correlation coefficient, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and McNemar tests. A close correlation between DAS and VAS-A was found (r  =  0.57, P < .0001); the VAS-A thresholds of dental anxiety and phobia were 5.1 and 7.0 cm, respectively. Despite a significant concordance of tests in 800 cases (72%), disagreement was found in the remaining 314 cases (28%), and low DAS was associated with high VAS-A (230 cases) or vice versa (84 cases). Our study confirms that VAS-A is a simple, sensitive, fast, and reliable tool in dental anxiety assessment. The rate of disagreement between VAS-A and DAS is probably due to different test sensitivities to different components of dental anxiety. VAS-A can be used effectively in the assessment of dental patients, using the values of 5.1 cm and 7.0 cm as cutoff values for anxiety and phobia, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medico-Surgical Specialities, Padova, Italy. enrico.facco@unipd.it
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Facco
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zanette
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Favero
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bacci
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sivolella
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cavallin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Manani
mesh_terms: D019540:Area Under Curve; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000145:classification*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index