Determining Cut-Off Points for the Dental Fear Survey
Table 2
Determination of DFS cut-off points sensitivity and specificity based on responses to the question “Are you fearful of going to the dentist?”
Cut-off point (total DFS score)
Not fearfulversusFearful (“a little fearful,” “very fearful,” and “extremely fearful”)
Low fearfulness (“not fearful” and “a little fearful”) versusHighly fearful (“very fearful” and “extremely fearful”)
Sensitivity
Specificity
Sensitivity
Specificity
20.5
1.000
0.102
1.000
0.075
25.5
0.997
0.375
1.000
0.279
30.5
0.952
0.638
1.000
0.487
35.5
0.810
0.810
1.000
0.657
40.5
0.678
0.902
1.000
0.764
45.5
0.527
0.954
0.956
0.846
50.5
0.359
0.981
0.889
0.913
52.5
0.328
0.984
0.889
0.925
55.5
0.255
0.991
0.822
0.949
60.5
0.182
0.997
0.800
0.973
65.5
0.106
1.000
0.622
0.992
70.5
0.073
1.000
0.556
0.999
75.5
0.050
1.000
0.378
0.999
A DFS score of 35.5, representing the best compromise between sensitivity (0.81) and specificity (0.81), was chosen as the cut-off point for dental fear. A DFS score of 52.5, representing the best compromise between sensitivity (0.89) and specificity (0.92), was chosen as the cut-off point for highly fearful category. Cut-off points are given in bold.
