A Public Health Perspective on Socio-Demographic Determinants of Dental Anxiety

Authors

  • Sadaf Shakoor BDS, MPH, Senior Lecturer, Department of Physiology, Sir Syed College of Medical Sciences for Girls, Karachi.
  • Syed Imtiaz Ahmed Jafry MBBS, MPH, Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Baqai Medical College, Karachi.
  • Syed Muhammad Zulfiqar Hyder Naqvi MBBS, MSBE, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Baqai Medical College, Karachi.
  • Nazia Jameel MBBS, MPH, Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Baqai Medical College, Karachi.
  • Syeda Nadia Firdous BDS, MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Dentistry, Watim Medical and Dental College, Islamabad.
  • Mahwish Bano BDS, MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Dentistry, Baqai Dental College, Karachi.

Keywords:

Risk Factors, Dental Anxiety, Outpatients.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of dental anxiety and it associated factors in dental outpatients at a private tertiary care hospital of Karachi

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Baqai Institute of Health Sciences, Baqai Medical University, Karachi, from February, 2023 to December, 2024 with data collection performed at the dental outpatient department of a private tertiary care hospital of Karachi. A total of 767 participants aged 18 years or above were included in the study. The study questionnaire comprised of Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) to assess dental anxiety. Data were analyzed on SPSS version 20.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 34.74±12.63 years and 401 (52.3%) of them were females. The study results showed that 223 (29.1%) of participants were suffering from dental anxiety. Moreover, their gender, education, occupation and monthly household income were all significantly associated with their dental anxiety level (p<0.05 for all).

Conclusion: It was concluded that a little less than third of the respondents were suffering from dental anxiety. Moreover, gender, education, occupation and monthly household income of the respondents were all significantly associated with their level of dental anxiety.

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Published

2025-09-23

How to Cite

Sadaf Shakoor, Syed Imtiaz Ahmed Jafry, Syed Muhammad Zulfiqar Hyder Naqvi, Nazia Jameel, Syeda Nadia Firdous, & Mahwish Bano. (2025). A Public Health Perspective on Socio-Demographic Determinants of Dental Anxiety. International Journal of Pharmacy Research & Technology (IJPRT), 15(2), 2101–2106. Retrieved from https://ijprt.org/index.php/pub/article/view/1017

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 2 (2025)

Section

Research Article

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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