| Column | Unique Values |
|---|---|
| How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value | 3, 4, 5 |
| How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value | 4, 5 |
| How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 | 3, 4, 5 |
| Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value | 5 |
| Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | 2, 3, 5 |
validation_fluoride_scale_attitude_hesitancy_new_data
Data Preparation
Check Likert values
Convert to Likert Format
Alpha de cronbach
Cronbach's Alpha: 0.677 Raw Alpha: 0.665 Number of items: Sample size: 41 | mean | sd | r.cor | r.drop | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value | 3.634 | 0.536 | 0.586 | 0.453 |
| How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value | 3.537 | 0.505 | 0.589 | 0.464 |
| How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?…12 | 3.341 | 0.728 | 0.522 | 0.434 |
| Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | 3.829 | 0.629 | 0.556 | 0.468 |
Principal Component Analysis
Loadings:
PC1
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.730
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.733
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 0.680
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value 0.708
PC1
SS loadings 2.033
Proportion Var 0.508| PC1 | |
|---|---|
| How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value | 0.7298136 |
| How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value | 0.7329014 |
| How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?…12 | 0.6795182 |
| Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | 0.7080236 |
Variance explained: 50.8 %Exploratory Factor Analysis
Loadings:
ML1
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.638
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.641
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 0.514
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value 0.549
ML1
SS loadings 1.384
Proportion Var 0.346| ML1 | |
|---|---|
| How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value | 0.6383358 |
| How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value | 0.6410437 |
| How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?…12 | 0.5136981 |
| Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | 0.5494725 |
Interitem correlations
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value 1.000
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.466
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 0.264
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value NA
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value 0.329
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.466
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 1.000
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 0.305
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value NA
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value 0.296
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.264
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.305
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 1.000
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value NA
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value 0.404
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value NA
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value NA
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 NA
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value 1
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value NA
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.329
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.296
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 0.404
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value NA
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value 1.000| How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value | How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value | How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?…12 | Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value | Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value | 1.000 | 0.466 | 0.264 | NA | 0.329 |
| How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value | 0.466 | 1.000 | 0.305 | NA | 0.296 |
| How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?…12 | 0.264 | 0.305 | 1.000 | NA | 0.404 |
| Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value | NA | NA | NA | 1 | NA |
| Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | 0.329 | 0.296 | 0.404 | NA | 1.000 |
Scale Adequacy Tests
Total value
# A tibble: 1 × 2
attitude_group n
<chr> <int>
1 Low hesitancy 41For publication
Methods
We evaluated the internal structure of a three-item scale assessing perceived effectiveness of fluoride-based interventions using principal component analysis (PCA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Prior to analysis, the item “Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste?” was excluded. Items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale and converted to numeric format. Variables with zero variance were removed. PCA and EFA (maximum likelihood extraction, 1-factor solution) were conducted on the cleaned dataset.
Results
Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was 0.61, indicating moderate internal consistency. PCA supported a unidimensional structure, with item loadings ranging from 0.651 to 0.810 and 56.6% of the variance explained. EFA confirmed this structure, with loadings from 0.416 (topical fluorides) to 0.734 (fluoride toothpaste), and 37.2% of the total variance explained. Inter-item correlations ranged from 0.264 to 0.466, with the weakest association between general and topical fluoride items. These results support the scale’s unidimensionality, though the topical fluoride item demonstrated weaker alignment with the underlying construct.