Objectives: The goal of dental care is to improve the health and meet the functional needs of patients. Yet, there is no standard, non-proprietary method for providing national benchmarks of dental care quality based on patient reports. Largely, this is because it is difficult to create a survey that covers all topics important to various stakeholders (clinicians, patients and dental care experts) while being short enough for practical use. The purpose of this research (supported by contract no. 233-02-0082 from the DHHS) was to develop such a tool. Methods: Specific features of dental care were identified by a qualitative analysis of the dental care quality assessment literature, audio-taped interviews with dental care thought leaders, and audio-taped focus groups with dental patients. Questions to address each of 117 unique features were drafted and organized into 20 topic areas. A shorter version of this question list was created by choosing a subset of questions that addressed just seven (of 20) topic areas identified as the most critical aspects of care by both dental care experts and dental patients. Cognitive testing was used to determine the comprehensibility of the questions and to assess whether they were interpreted as intended. Questions were rewritten or eliminated according to the results of the cognitive testing. Results: A 50-item questionnaire was developed that describes: Dentist Communication, Technical Quality of Care, Cleanliness of Office/Clinic, Treatment Outcome, Access to Necessary Care, Timely Access to Care, and Quality of Dental Plan. Conclusion: A rigorous program of qualitative research can be used to develop a content-valid, concise, yet comprehensive tool to provide data on quality of dental care from the patient point of view. Subsequent research will evaluate the precision of the questionnaire data and practicality of data collection methods in a pilot sample of approximately 2,100 dental patients.

Back to the Behavioral Sciences/Health Services Research Program
Back to the ADEA/AADR/CADR Meeting & Exhibition (March 8-11, 2006)

Top Level Search