Social images of medicine and dentistry in Japan. An exploratory study using correspondence analysis

Objective: To investigate social images associated with dentistry in compar ison with nine other medical disciplines. Design: A questionnaire survey am ong members of the general public. Subjects were asked to state, in not mor e than five words, the images which they associated with each of the ten di sciplines. Setting: Komaki City, Shikatsu Town and Nagoya City in Japan, Pa rticipants: 261 respondents from a convenience sample of 300 residents, not associated with any branch of medicine. Outcome measures: Frequency distri bution of word images used on at least five occasions and a correspondence analysis of the responses for the ten disciplines. Results: Of the 163 code d image items, 60 were related to internal medicine, 56 to dentistry, 55 to dermatology, 51 to orthopaedic surgery, 51 to ophthalmology, 50 to surgery , 47 to obstetrics and gynaecology, 43 to otolaryngology, 40 to paediatrics and 33 to psychiatry. Correspondence analysis applied to the 163 items and 10 medical disciplines indicated that three similar paired image groups we re found, namely between dermatology and ophthalmology, surgery and orthopa edic surgery, and between dentistry and internal medicine, which were the m ore commonly encountered disciplines across all age groups. However, compar ed with the other specialities, dentistry had a significantly greater assoc iation with pain, this response being four times more common than for surge ry. Conclusions: This group of members of the public in Japan perceived den tistry-associated images in a similar way to internal medicine, but the neg ative associations with pain need to be addressed by the dental profession and health educators alike.