The relationship between dental anxiety and other kinds of anxiety: a naturalistic, cross-sectional and comparative study

Table 1 Multidimensional description of the sample

	Whole sample						Comparison between check-examination group (0) and dental treatment group (1) (t- test or chi-square test)
	N	M or %	(SD)	Vc	Median	Range	t or chi²	p	Cohen’s d or Cramer’s V
Socio-demographic variables
Age	156	51.2	(17.7)	35%	55	17–87	0.77	n.s	0.14
Sex (% women)	156	57%					0.001	n.s	0.003
Living alone	155	32.3%					3.22	n.s	0.16
Education (% high school)	154	68%					1.38	n.s	0.10
Employment (% employed/jobless/pension)	154	67/1.3/21%					3.95	n.s	0.17
Odontological variables
Age at onset of dental problems	127	13.0	(7.3)	56%	11	3–50	0.99	n.s	0.04
Dental appointments in the last 12 months	155	2.8	(2.6)	93%	2	0–25	2.65	0.009	0.48
Different dentists during the lifetime	152	6.0	(5.3)	88%	5	1–40	1.46	n.s	0.26
Medical variables
Number different drugs currently	156	1.1	(1.7)	155%	0	0–8	0.66	n.s	0.12
Medical appointments last 12 months	156	5.4	(5.4)	100%	4	0–40	0.44	n.s	0.08
Number physical illnesses	156	0.77	(0.97)	126%	0	0–4	0.74	n.s	0.13
Biographical data
Any psychiatric support during the lifetime	155	39.3%					2.14	n.s	0.13
Appraisal of one’s life	155	7.9	(1.4)	18%	8	2–10	0.04	n.s	0.01
Appraisal of one’s upbringing	154	7.5	(2.1)	28%	8	1–10	0.74	n.s	0.13
Traumatic experience in childhood	155	45.8%					0.14	n.s	0.03
Traumatic experience as an adult	156	35.9%					0.01	n.s	0.01

N = sample size; M = mean; SD = standard deviation; Range = lowest and highest value; Vc = variation coefficient: (SD/M) × 100; t = t- value on a t-distribution; chi² = value at chi-square distribution of values; p = level of significance of differences; Cohen’s d = effect size of differences for metric variables; Cramer’s V = effect size of differences for categorical variables

ISSN: 2050-7283