Background: Survey quality, in particular sampling, coverage, and issues of\nrepresentativity, are important for valid and reliable conclusions from epidemiological\ndata. Dental anxiety (DA) still challenges dental clinicians since it\nis synonymous with care avoidance. Accurate estimates of DA are important\nfor public health. Aims were to 1) assess demographic representativity (age/\ngender) of a 2013-14 web survey and a 1992-93 telephone survey about DA in\nDanish adults aged 16 - 80 yr using government statistics; 2) assess DA frequency\nand characteristics from web survey data (N = 701); and 3) compare\nweb results with 1993 results. Method: Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) measured\nDA, while other items revealed gender, age, education, dentist avoidance, and\nthree types of negative dentist behaviors. Analyses used frequencies, Chisquare,\nodds ratios (OR) and ANOVAs. Results: Samples from 1992-3 and\n2013-14 were not significantly different by demographics or government statistics,\nwith the exception of low numbers in ages 16 - 19 yr for both surveys.\nAges 20 - 29 yr and 30 - 39 yr were slightly overrepresented in telephone data,\nwhile ages 50 - 59 yo were in web data. Mean DAS scores were 7.5 for both\n1992-3 and 2013-14. Extreme DA (DAS 20-15) increased from 4.2% to 5.3%,\nwhile high DA (DAS � 13) increased from 6% to 9.5%. Main 2013-14 associations\nwith DAS � 15 were women (OR = 4.7), avoiding dentists (OR = 11.4)\nand negative dentist behaviors (OR = 4.2 - 6.7) similar to 1992-3 data. Conclusion:\nWeb survey results from this convenience sample were demographically\nrepresentative for adults 20 - 80 yo and showed small changes in DA after\n20 years. Future strategies regarding survey of teenagers require special attention.
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