Prevalence of Child Dental Fear Among Children in Jeddah

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of child dental fear among primary school children in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1525 male and female primary school children aged 6-12, in Jeddah, were recruited for the study. The subjects were selected by stratified random sample. After obtaining parent’s consent, each child was asked to independently complete the Arabic version of the Children’s Fear Survey Schedule – Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) questionnaire. The 15-item-questionnaire could be answered on a five point scale giving a total range from 15 to 75. The higher score indicated high fear. Children who scored 32 and higher were considered fearful and those scored less than 32 were considered low fearful.
Results: After excluding the questionnaires that had missing data revealed 1436 children. These children had a mean age of 9.28 + 1.8 of them 48.7% were boys with a mean age of 9.37 + 1.8 and 51.3 % girls with a mean age of 9.20 + 1.8. No significant difference was found between boys and girls in age (t-test= 1.73, P=0.08). Internal consistency reliability for the 15 items was 0.89. The total fear scores ranged from 15-75 with a mean score for all the children was 26.08 + 10.58. Using the cut off score of 32 revealed that 21.2% of the children were fearful . The fearful children had a significantly higher mean age of 9.70 + 1.8 compared to a mean age 9.17 + 1.8 for non fearful children (P<0.001).
Conclusions: On comparing prevalence of dental fear according to age and gender significant differences were found among different ages and between boys and girls regarding percentages of fearful children (P>0.05). It was found that children of ages 10-12 years have higher percentages of fearful children (19-27%) compared to younger children (15- 16%).