Use of an animated emoji scale as a novel tool for anxiety assessment in children

BACKGROUND: Dental anxiety in children is a major barrier in patient management. If dental anxiety in pediatric patients is assessed during the first visit, it will not only aid in management but also help to identify patients who are in need of special care to deal with their fear. Nowadays, children and adults are highly interested in multimedia and are closely associated with them. Children usually prefer motion pictures on electronic devices than still cartoons on paper. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate a newly designed scale, the animated emoji scale (AES), which uses motion emoticons/animojis to assess dental anxiety in children during their first dental visit, and compare it with the Venham picture test (VPT) and facial image scale (FIS). METHODS: The study included 102 healthy children aged 4–14 years, whose dental anxiety was measured using AES, VPT, and FIS during their first dental visit, and their scale preference was recorded. RESULTS: The mean anxiety scores measured using AES, FIS, and VPT, represented as mean ± SD, were 1.78 ± 1.19, 1.93 ± 1.23, and 1.51 ± 1.84, respectively. There was significant difference in the mean anxiety scores between the three scales (Friedman test, P < 0.001). The Pearson's correlation test showed a very strong correlation (0.73) between AES and VPT, and a strong correlation between AES and FIS (0.88), and FIS and VPT (0.69), indicating good validity of AES. Maximum number of children (74.5%) preferred AES. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest that the AES is a novel and child-friendly tool for assessing dental anxiety in children.

Diagnóstico e manejo da ansiedade odontológica pelos cirurgiões-dentistas / Diagnosis and treatment of dental anxiety by dentists

O trabalho verifica o conhecimento e a prática profissional relacionados às formas de diagnóstico e manejo da ansiedade odontológica pelos cirurgiões-dentistas. Os profissionais preencheram um questionário autoaplicável sobre diagnóstico e tratamento da ansiedade odontológica. No total, 967 cirurgiões-dentistas responderam ao questionário, dos quais aproximadamente 65% relataram fazer algum tipo de avaliação da ansiedade. Nenhum participante relatou utilizar técnicas semi objetivas do tipo questionário estruturado. Aproximadamente 32% dos profissionais relataram utilizar um protocolo específico para a abordagem do paciente ansioso, sendo os mais utilizados a conversa (38%), a prescrição farmacológica (23%) ou algum tipo de condicionamento do paciente (17%). O trabalho discute a importância de incorporar no ensino da odontologia conhecimentos advindos da psicologia, favorecendo o desenvolvimento de habilidades relacionadas ao diagnóstico e o manejo da ansiedade odontológica

This work verifies the knowledge and use of psychometric scales and cognitive-behavioral techniques by dentists. Professionals completed a self-administered questionnaire on diagnosis and treatment of dental anxiety. The number of participants was 967 dentists of which approximately 65% reported making some type of anxiety assessment. No participant reported using semi-objective techniques of assessment. Approximately 32% of professionals reported using a specific protocol for addressing the anxious patient, the most utilized were conversation (38%), drug prescription (23%) or some kind of conditioning of the patient (17%). The paper discusses the importance of incorporating the teaching of psychological knowledge on dental education, favoring the development of skills related to the diagnosis and management of dental anxiety

Development and validation of a short-form version of the Brazilian state-trait anxiety inventory / Desenvolvimento e validação da forma reduzida do inventáriode ansiedade traço-estado

The Brazilian State-Trait Anxiety Inventory has been widely used to measure state (STAI-S) and trait (STAI-T) components of anxiety. The present work developed and evaluated a short version of the STAI-S and STAI-T in a large sample of Brazilian subjects. The first study selected short-form scales. The second one employed factor analyses to investigate whether each of the two short-form scales presented a well-defined and balanced structure with both anxiety-present and anxiety-absent factors. Results indicated that the STAI-S and STAI-T could be reduced to six items (STAI-S-6 and STAI-T-6, respectively) without sacrificing their psychometric properties. The findings suggest that STAI-S-6 and STAI-T-6 may be employed in situations where time restraints make the use of full-length forms unfeasible.

O inventário brasileiro de ansiedade traço-estado tem sido amplamente utilizado para medir os componentes de ansiedade, estado (STAI-S) e traço (STAI-T). O presente trabalho desenvolveu e avaliou uma versão simplificada de STAI-S e STAI-T em uma grande amostra de sujeitos brasileiros. O primeiro estudo selecionou as escalas de forma curta. O segundo estudo empregou análises fatorais para investigar se cada uma dessas duas escalas simplificadas apresentou uma estrutura bem definida e equilibrada com fatores de ansiedade-presente e ansiedade-ausente. Resultados indicaram que o STAI-S e o STAI-T poderiam ser reduzidos para seis itens (STAI-S-6 e STAI-T-6, respectivamente) sem comprometer suas propriedades psicométricas. Estes resultados sugerem que STAI-S-6 e STAI-T-6 podem ser empregados em situações onde restrições de tempo tornam inviável a utilização de formulários completos.

The Validity of Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety Information Scale in the Assessment of the Preoperative Anxiety - Compared with hospital anxiety depression scale and visual analogue scale - / 대한마취과학회지

BACKGROUND: There are many objective and subjective methods for measuring the level of preoperative anxiety, but commonly used methods, such as HADS (hospital anxiety depression scale) and VAS (visual analogue scale), are not simple and easily used by patients. APAIS (Amsterdam preoperative anxiety and information scale) is a newly developed preoperative anxiety measuring instrument. The object of this study was to evaluate the ability of APAIS to overcome the limitations of other anxiety measuring instruments. METHODS: 105 adult patients were asked to fill out the questionnaires in APAIS and HADS and also to mark on a 100 mm line in VAS in the range of 0 (calm) to 100 (terrified) how tense they felt at that moment in the evening before surgery. 95 patients responded to the questionnaire. We compared APAIS with the other subjective measurements of anxiety according to patients' sex, ASA class, past history of surgery and level of education, and evaluated the equivalence of the three methods. RESULTS: APAIS has a significant relationship with the other two methods (P < 0.05), but the other two methods have no significant relationship. The data of the APAIS showed a nearly symmetrical distribution as compared with that of HADS and VAS. Women and patients who had had no surgery were significantly anxious as opposed to men and to patients with previous experience of surgery, respectively (P < 0.05). The HADS and APAIS were in good agreement in defining patients as having normal AFFECT or anxiety and there were significant correlations between the three instruments (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the three scales were equivalent in their assessment of anxiety before surgery. Therefore, APAIS will be useful alternative method of measuring subjective preoperative anxiety.

The Validity of Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety Information Scale in the Assessment of the Preoperative Anxiety - Compared with hospital anxiety depression scale and visual analogue scale - / 대한마취과학회지

BACKGROUND: There are many objective and subjective methods for measuring the level of preoperative anxiety, but commonly used methods, such as HADS (hospital anxiety depression scale) and VAS (visual analogue scale), are not simple and easily used by patients. APAIS (Amsterdam preoperative anxiety and information scale) is a newly developed preoperative anxiety measuring instrument. The object of this study was to evaluate the ability of APAIS to overcome the limitations of other anxiety measuring instruments. METHODS: 105 adult patients were asked to fill out the questionnaires in APAIS and HADS and also to mark on a 100 mm line in VAS in the range of 0 (calm) to 100 (terrified) how tense they felt at that moment in the evening before surgery. 95 patients responded to the questionnaire. We compared APAIS with the other subjective measurements of anxiety according to patients' sex, ASA class, past history of surgery and level of education, and evaluated the equivalence of the three methods. RESULTS: APAIS has a significant relationship with the other two methods (P < 0.05), but the other two methods have no significant relationship. The data of the APAIS showed a nearly symmetrical distribution as compared with that of HADS and VAS. Women and patients who had had no surgery were significantly anxious as opposed to men and to patients with previous experience of surgery, respectively (P < 0.05). The HADS and APAIS were in good agreement in defining patients as having normal AFFECT or anxiety and there were significant correlations between the three instruments (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the three scales were equivalent in their assessment of anxiety before surgery. Therefore, APAIS will be useful alternative method of measuring subjective preoperative anxiety.