Validation of Short Dental Anxiety Inventory among Mexican adult patients

Since it is important to assess anxiety during the dental procedures and there is a brief, reliable and valid instrument for this purpose, the Short Dental Anxiety Inventory (SDAI), it would be relevant to contrast its psychometric properties in Mexico where it has not been studied yet. The aims of this study were to contrast a single-factor structure for the SDAI, estimate its internal consistency, describe its distribution, and study its relationship with sociodemographic variables. The SDAI was applied to a non-probability sample of 384 patients (67% female and 33% male) with a mean age of 36 years old ( SD=15.1). By scale-free least squares the single-factor model fit was good; by generalized least squares, it was adequate, and good after introducing four correlations between the residuals. The internal consistency was high. The distribution was positively skewed and showed positive kurtosis. Women averaged significantly higher than men on the SDAI total score. Its use in Mexico is suggested and building normative criteria by percentile scores according to sex is recommended.