Validation of the Persian Version of Dental Students’ Attitude toward Underserved Populations Questionnaire

Background: Assessing dental students’ attitudes toward providing services to disadvantaged populations is essential for improving community-based training programs. Up to now, few scales have been developed to measure dental students’ attitudes about deprived groups, among which the “Dental Students’ Attitudes Toward Underserved populations instrument” (DSATU) is a reliable questionnaire. Objectives: This study aimed to assess and confirm the validity and reliability of Persian version of the DSATU questionnaire. Methods: In this validation study, translation and cultural adaptation were made by translation and back-translation method. A panel of experts assessed the face and content validity qualitatively. The content validity was assessed using a quantitative approach (which included the Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and the Content Validity Index (CVI). The item’s impact score was evaluated by dental students. The test-retest method and Cronbach’s alpha were used to determine the reliability. Results: The questionnaire was revised and modified based on the validation results. Regarding CVR, two questions were excluded. Moreover, according to CVI and impact score results, eight questions were modified and corrected. Total cronbach’s alpha coefficient (= 0.831) and intraclass correlation coefficient (0.83) were acceptable. The Pearson and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient indicated that the reliability was appropriate. Conclusion: The introduced Persian version of the DSATU questionnaire is a culturally appropriate, valid, and reliable instrument for Persian researchers who intend to evaluate the attitude of dental students toward underserved populations. Moreover, it can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of community-based training programs in longitudinal studies.