Abstract
It is well known that a risk perception affects the decision of whether to adopt new substances, activities, and technologies. We conducted a survey on the risk perception of fluoride therapies with a questionnaire developed by Slovic. The subjects were 1,030 women in their thirties who were registered as monitors by a web research company and had children living in 10 prefectures selected based on the number of children participating in fluoride mouth-rinsing programs. Sixty-one percent of their children experienced a fluoride application, and 69%, 18%, 0.6% experienced fluoride toothpaste, fluoride mouth-rinsing, and fluoridation, respectively. Most had obtained knowledge about fluoride from dental personnel and administrative health officers. The knowledge level of the effectiveness and risks of fluoride application was the highest, followed by fluoride toothpaste, fluoride mouth-rinsing and fluoridation. The level of fear of fluoridation was significantly higher than that of other fluoride therapies. The desire for fluoride application and toothpaste to increase in the near future was strong; however, that for fluoride mouth-rinsing and fluoridation was weak. It was found that there was an association between the number of fluoride therapies their children had experienced and the desire to increase them, except for fluoridation. Factor analysis showed that the first factor was "Sense of fear", the second was "Amount of information", and the third was "Sense of risk control". The first and second factors were similar to "Dread" and "Unknown" identified by Slovic et al. There was little difference among "Sense of fear" of various fluoride therapies; however, "Amount of information" on fluoridation and fluoride mouth-rinsing was significantly less than that of fluoride application and fluoride toothpaste. The subjects had little information on fluoridation in every prefecture and there was no difference in the "Amount of information" on fluoridation among prefectures with widespread fluoride therapies or not, but the "Amount of information" on other fluoride therapies was greater in prefectures where fluoride therapies are widespread. It was suggested that little information on fluoridation was provided even in prefectures where topical fluoride therapies are widely used.
