Perera I R, Usgodaarachchi U S
Community Dental Unit, Dental Institute, Ward Place, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka.
Community Dent Health. 2009 Sep;26(3):150-6.
To develop and validate a psychometric scale to assess dental satisfaction among Sri Lankans.
A population based cross sectional study, where the data were collected by a postal questionnaire. A 22-item scale was developed to measure dental satisfaction.
1,000 Sri Lankans aged 18-75 years, selected by cluster sampling with probability proportionate to size technique, using National Voters' register.
Reliability of the scale was assessed by internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha and corrected item-total correlations. Construct validity was determined by factor analysis and acceptability was assessed by percentage of item-specific non-response.
The overall response rate was 30.9%. Among respondents, analysis was limited to dental care users within two years (n=117). Item-specific non-response was low, ranging from 3.4% to 9.4%. Four (negatively worded) items were removed from the scale due to poor internal consistency (corrected item-total correlations <0.2). After removal, corrected item-total correlations of remaining 18 items were improved, ranging from 0.23 to 0.76. Factor analysis revealed a four factor solution, interpreted as: "outcome of care/clinic context" (8-items), 'factors related to treatment process" (7-items), "convenience" (2-items) and "cost of care" (single item). Identified factors explained 64.56% of the variance of the scale. The Cronbach's alpha values for the first three dimensions were 0.90, 0.87 and 0.60 respectively and for the overall construct it was 0.91.
The present scale appeared to be a valid and reliable instrument for measuring dental satisfaction among Sri Lankans, but merits further refinements to explore detailed aspects of it.
开发并验证一种用于评估斯里兰卡人牙齿满意度的心理测量量表。
一项基于人群的横断面研究，通过邮政问卷收集数据。开发了一个包含22个条目的量表来测量牙齿满意度。
1000名年龄在18 - 75岁的斯里兰卡人，采用按规模大小概率比例抽样的整群抽样技术，依据国家选民登记册进行选取。
使用克朗巴哈系数（Cronbach's alpha）和校正后的项目 - 总分相关性通过内部一致性来评估量表的信度。通过因子分析确定结构效度，并通过特定项目无应答的百分比来评估可接受性。
总体应答率为30.9%。在受访者中，分析仅限于两年内使用过牙科护理的人群（n = 117）。特定项目无应答率较低，范围在3.4%至9.4%之间。由于内部一致性差（校正后的项目 - 总分相关性<0.2），从量表中删除了4个（反向表述）项目。删除后，其余18个项目的校正后的项目 - 总分相关性得到改善，范围在0.23至0.76之间。因子分析揭示了一个四因子解决方案，解释为：“护理结果/诊所环境”（8个项目）、“与治疗过程相关的因素”（7个项目）、“便利性”（2个项目）和“护理成本”（单个项目）。所确定的因子解释了量表方差的64.56%。前三个维度的克朗巴哈系数值分别为0.90、0.87和0.60，总体结构的克朗巴哈系数值为0.91。
目前的量表似乎是一种用于测量斯里兰卡人牙齿满意度的有效且可靠的工具，但值得进一步完善以探究其详细方面。
