Reliability and validity of artificial intelligence-based innovative digital scale for the assessment of anxiety in children

Authors

  • RM Shetty Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Dentistry, Ajman University, Ajman, UAE - Center of Medical and Bio-allied Health Sciences Research, Ajman University - Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Sharad Pawar Dental College and Hospital, Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research (Declared as Deemed-to-be University) Wardha, Maharashtra
  • T Walia Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Dentistry, Ajman University, Ajman, UAE - Center of Medical and Bio-allied Health Sciences Research, Ajman University
  • OTS Osman Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Dentistry, Ajman University, Ajman

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23804/ejpd.2024.1937

Keywords:

Anxiety Scale, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Anxiety Scale, RMS-DAS, RMS-Digital Anxiety Scale, Self-reported anxiety scale

Abstract

AIM: To assess the reliability and validity of an AI-based, innovative digital scale for the assessment of dental anxiety in children. BACKGROUND: Dental anxiety still persists as a potential problem in managing the child in the dental office. There is a need to develop a gold standard scale to measure anxiety in children incorporating newer technology. An innovative self-reported scale known as RMSDigital Anxiety Scale (RMS-DAS) incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) was developed. METHODS: Seventy-six children (aged 4–12 years) were included in the reliability group. The RMS-DAS test score was recorded on Day 1 where the child was asked to click on the expression produced by AI that matches his/her anxiety level the most at that moment. RMS-DAS retest score was recorded after 7 days. The validity group included 140 children. The anxiety scores were recorded using three scales; RMS-DAS, RMS-Pictorial Scale (RMS-PS) and Facial Image Scale (FIS) during the same visit where the child was asked to click on the expression that matches his/her anxiety level the most at that moment. Reliability was assessed by the internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha and the test-retest was assessed using paired t-test, scatterplot, and coefficient correlation. The validity of RMS-DAS was assessed by correlating it with RMS-PS and FIS using Spearman's correlation coefficient. CONCLUSION: RMS-DAS is a reliable and valid scale that can be used as a new digital tool to assess children's dental anxiety.