Translation and Validation of Italian Version of Index of Dental Anxiety and Fear (IDAF-4C+): A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Dental anxiety (DA) is defined as unreasonable apprehension toward dental procedures. About 4–20% of the worldwide adult population presents DA, with peaks of 30% in the younger population. Managing patients with dental anxiety and fear with a reliable and valid instrument is necessary to understand the multidimensional dimensions of dental fear. This work aimed to validate the Index of Dental Anxiety and Fear (IDAF-4C+) into Italian. Two hundred and eighty dental students attending an Italian university were enrolled. The IDAF-4C+ was translated by experts and a native English translator, blinded to the original version. The Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) was used to assess the validity of IDAF-4C+. Spearman correlation coefficients and Exploratory Factorial Analysis (EFA) were used. Reliability was evaluated by Cronbach’s alpha. The reliability of the Italian version of IDAF-4C+ was good (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.88). Correlation between IDAF-4C+ and MDAS ranged between 0.42 to 0.68. From EFA, one factor explained 58.76% of the common variance. Women showed a higher level of dental fear. The Italian IDAF-4C+ is a valid and reliable tool to assess DA in any clinical context. This instrument allows for a proper understanding and management of DA, and therefore a better patient oral health-related quality of life and compliance with the dentist’s instructions.

Factors associated with patients’ rejection of root canal treatment in a tertiary hospital, Southwest Nigeria: A pilot survey

“…[ 20 21 22 38 ] However, this study reported no significant difference in IDAF-4C when age and gender were considered. This is similar to other studies[ 38 39 ] that have reported no difference in IDAF-4C based on the gender and age of the patients.…”

Psychometric Assessment of the Romanian Version of the Index of Dental Anxiety and Fear (IDAF-4C+)

“…The dental anxiety scale, DAS, and single-question assessment were highly correlated with the emotional component of the IDAF-4C (r = 0.827, p < 0.001, and r = 0.727, p < 0.001), similar to previous research [9,12,26,27]. Armfield [9], had similar results; the emotional component was highly correlated with the DAS (r = 0.83) and with a single item of dental fear (r = 0.59).…”

“…The agreement between the two indices in this study (κ = 0.617, p < 0.001) was higher than that in Ibrahim (κ = 0.498) [29]. Discrepancies between the level of anxiety recorded by the Modified dental anxiety scale (MDAS) and the IDAF-4C were found also in the validation study for Finnish and Italian participants, maybe because of the cut of point(s) that were arbitrarily established [26,27].…”