The instrument consists of 7 statements to be answered by parents.
Questions indicating good care: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7
Questions indicating poor care: 3, 4
The responses are graded so that a higher score indicates poorer care.
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Responses
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Poor Care
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Good Care
|
|
definitely no
|
1
|
5
|
|
somewhat no
|
2
|
4
|
|
neutral
|
3
|
3
|
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somewhat yes
|
4
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2
|
|
definitely yes
|
5
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1
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neglect scale =
= SUM(points for all 7 statements)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 7
• maximum score: 35
• A higher score for all the questions indicates greater dental neglect.
• A high score for questions 3 and/or 4 indicates avoidance behavior.
A high score for dental neglect was associated with:
(1) male gender
(2) younger children
(3) mothers having less education
(4) lack of dental care in the previous 2 years
(5) symptom driven dental visits rather than for routine examinations
