Factor analysis and reduction of a Fear Survey Schedule among dental phobic patients

A fear survey instrument, based on the Fear Survey Schedule-II and five additional fear items, was administered to 109 patients (70 women and 39 men) on a waiting list at a specialized dental fear clinic. The fear survey was analyzed to identify its factorial structure. Five fear factors, explaining 54% of the total variance, were identified concerning areas of "illness and death", "failures and embarrassment", "social situations", "physical injuries", and "animals and natural phenomena". An ad hoc reduction of items was carried out to form a shorter, more practical to use questionnaire, which resulted in factors of four or five items with loadings greater than 0.50. The factors intercorrelated significantly (r_p varying between 0.33 and 0.59) and "illness and death" correlated highly with "physical injuries" (r_p=0.59) and "animals and natural phenomena" (r_p=0.56), while "failures and embarrassment" correlated highly to "social situations" (r_p= 0.54). Statistically significant, but generally lower correlations were found between each factor and the dental fear measures. The highest correlations were found between fear of "physical injuries" and dental fear. There was also a high and significant correlation between sex and fear of "animals and natural phenomena".