Abstract
The purpose of this study was to find factors related to patients' evaluative attitudes toward dentures or denture wearing, to investigate construct validity and relation to denture acceptance. The subjects were 263 patients, who visited The School of Dentistry of Aichi-Gakuin University. They were given a questionnaire concerning their opinions and feelings about dentures or denture wearing, and a few items asking the patients' satisfaction with their dentures. Their psychological tendencies were evaluated by Yatabe-Guilford Personality Inventory and Cornell Medical Index.
To find factors of the patients' evaluative attitudes, the principal factor solution with varimax rotation was applied.
The results were as follows:
1. Three factors found by factor analysis were as follows: F-1 (usefulness), F-2 (comfort), and F-3 (anxiety).
2. There appeared to be a relationship between patients' evaluative attitudes and their sex, denture experience, and age. These results indicated construct validity of their attitude items.
3. A low relationship was found between the patients' personality and the second factor, namely, comfort.
4. Significant correlation was found between the patients' satisfaction with their dentures and each of the found factors. The correlation coefficients were as follows: usefulness (0.37), comfort (-0.38), and anxiety (-0.20).
5. It can be concluded that the patients' evaluative attitudes were quantitatively measured and important to denture acceptance.
