Psychometric Properties of Dental Anxiety Inventory

Dental anxiety is defined as psychological reaction to stress caused by dental interventions. This type of anxiety is common among patients, assessment of which could be beneficial in psychiatric treatments. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of dental anxiety inventory (DAI).
Material & In total, 300 students from Islamic Azad University of Khoy, Khoy, Iran with a history of dental treatment were selected by random sampling. Participants filled the DAI after obtaining written informed consents. Data analysis was performed in SPSS and LISREL.
The results of exploratory factor analysis revealed one factor. In addition, the exploration for DAI in Iranian population was confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis. Moreover, internal consistency of this inventory was demonstrated at Cronbach’s alpha (α=0.94) and split-half (r=0.95).
According to the results of this study, DAI contains sufficient psychometric properties for Iranian population and could be used by professionals to evaluate dental anxiety.