| 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 | 3, 4, 5 |
| How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 | 1, 3, 4, 5 |
| Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value | 4, 5 |
| Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | 2, 3, 4, 5 |
Fluoride Hesitancy - Full data sample
FULL SAMPLE VALIDATION
Data Preparation
Check Likert values
Convert to Likert Format
Alpha de cronbach
Cronbach's Alpha: 0.618 Raw Alpha: 0.649 Number of items: Sample size: 340 | mean | sd | r.cor | r.drop | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value | 3.468 | 0.556 | 0.792 | 0.639 |
| How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value | 3.356 | 0.610 | 0.725 | 0.550 |
| How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?…12 | 3.247 | 0.690 | 0.548 | 0.477 |
| Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value | 3.974 | 0.161 | 0.200 | 0.160 |
| Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | 3.859 | 0.418 | 0.242 | 0.216 |
Principal Component Analysis
Loadings:
PC1
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.865
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.826
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 0.691
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value 0.330
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value 0.347
PC1
SS loadings 2.137
Proportion Var 0.427| PC1 | |
|---|---|
| How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value | 0.8646386 |
| How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value | 0.8259985 |
| How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?…12 | 0.6913720 |
| Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value | 0.3295595 |
| Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | 0.3474646 |
Variance explained: 42.7 %Exploratory Factor Analysis
Loadings:
ML1
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.892
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.765
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 0.484
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
ML1
SS loadings 1.70
Proportion Var 0.34| ML1 | |
|---|---|
| How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value | 0.8916684 |
| How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value | 0.7647396 |
| How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?…12 | 0.4837914 |
| Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value | 0.2328298 |
| Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | 0.1771795 |
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 0.683
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 0.429
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value 0.205
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value 0.158
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 0.683
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 0.366
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value 0.217
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value 0.070
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 0.429
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.366
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 0.033
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value 0.295
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value
How effective do you believe fluoride in general is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.205
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.217
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 0.033
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value 1.000
Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value -0.012
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 0.158
How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value 0.070
How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?...12 0.295
Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value -0.012
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 | 0.683 | 0.429 | 0.205 | 0.158 |
| How effective do you believe fluoride toothpaste is in controlling cavitites? Value | 0.683 | 1.000 | 0.366 | 0.217 | 0.070 |
| How effective do you believe topical fluorides (e.g.gel or varnish) are in controlling cavitites?…12 | 0.429 | 0.366 | 1.000 | 0.033 | 0.295 |
| Do you currently recommend the use of fluoride toothpaste? Value | 0.205 | 0.217 | 0.033 | 1.000 | -0.012 |
| Would you currently offer topical fluoride (e.g. gel or varnish) application to your patients? Value | 0.158 | 0.070 | 0.295 | -0.012 | 1.000 |
Scale Adequacy Tests
Total value
# A tibble: 1 × 2
attitude_group n
<chr> <int>
1 Low hesitancy 340For 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). 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 five-item scale was 0.618 (raw alpha = 0.649), indicating moderate internal consistency. Principal component analysis (PCA) supported a unidimensional structure, with the first component explaining 42.7% of the total variance. The three items assessing perceived effectiveness of fluoride interventions showed strong loadings (0.691 to 0.865), while behavioral intention items (“recommend toothpaste” and “offer topical fluoride”) showed weaker loadings (0.330 and 0.347, respectively).
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using maximum likelihood extraction yielded a similar pattern. The three perceived effectiveness items loaded from 0.484 to 0.892 on a single factor explaining 34% of the variance. The two behavioral items had substantially lower loadings (< 0.24). Inter-item correlations ranged from 0.033 to 0.683, with stronger correlations among perceived effectiveness items and weaker or negligible correlations between these and behavioral items.
These results suggest that the scale primarily captures a single latent construct reflecting perceived effectiveness of fluoride interventions. However, items addressing clinical recommendations may reflect a related but distinct dimension and may require separate evaluation or adaptation in future versions of the scale.