The revised dental beliefs survey: reliability and validity in a Chinese population

Abstract

Background: Patient perceptions of behaviors and attitudes of dentists are associated with dental fear and poor dental attendance in Western countries. However, there is a paucity of research exploring patients' perceptions of the dentist in China. One reason for this may be the lack of a valid and reliable scale in Chinese to measure this. This study aimed to translate the Revised Dental Beliefs Survey (R-DBS) into Chinese and then explore the reliability and validity of this measure in a Chinese population. Methods: We translated the R-DBS using the forwards-backwards method and pilot tested it on a small sample of adults in China. Following this, 349 Chinese adults completed the newly translated scale, as well as well as a standardised dental anxiety questionnaire (the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale Chinese version) to test construct validity. 107 participants completed the R-DBS again 2 weeks later for test-retest reliability. Findings: The Chinese R-DBS was internally consistent (alpha = 0.9), demonstrated construct validity (r = 0.6) and test-retest reliability was good (r = 0.7). Discussion: These findings suggest that the R-DBS is a reliable and valid measure for assessing Chinese patient perceptions of behaviours and attitudes of the dentist. The next step is to use this measure in a large-scale study in order to assess dentist perceptions as well as oral health, anxiety and dental attendance in China.