Introduction:

Dental anxiety is a problem that greatly affects oral health and dental compliance in adults. There are many instruments to assess dental anxiety in general population. IDAF-4C+ has a modular structure that allows to identify dental anxiety levels and feared stimuli related to dental setting. The aim of this study is to determine the construct and content validity, and the reliability of the Spanish version of IDAF-4C+ in pregnant women from primary health care centers in Santiago, Chile.

Methods:

72 pregnant women ranged from 18 to 40 years old were recruited at primary health care centers from Santiago, Chile. To determine content validity the agreement among experts was assessed. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to demonstrate the construct validity, meanwhile reliability was determined in terms of internal consistency by undertaken Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

Results:

The results indicated that the prevalence of dental anxiety is 33.34% in women. The experts did not modify the Spanish version of IDAF-4C+. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded a single factor that accounted for 61,86% of variance. A high Cronbach's alpha (a = 0,908) confirm the internal consistency of the instrument.

Conclusion:

IDAF-4C+ presents an appropriate construct and content validity, and an excellent reliability. It is a proper instrument to be used in pregnant women enrolled in primary health care centers in Chile.

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