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Increasing mouthguards usage among junior rugby and basketball players
G Jalleh1, R J Donovan, J Clarkson
1Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control, Division of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia. g.jalleh@cc.curtin.edu.au
Objective:
To evaluate a Western Australian mouthguard promotion campaign, launched at the start of the 1997/98 junior rugby union and junior basketball seasons, aimed at increasing mouthguard usage at competition and training.
Method:
A quasi-experimental field design was used to assess the impact of the mouthguard campaign on behavioural change. Observational data were collected pre- and post-campaign on mouthguard usage by players present at a rugby and basketball competition event and at a training session. Junior Australian Rules Football players were used as a control group.
Results:
Pre-post observational surveys showed a significantly greater increase in mouthguard usage in competition games among rugby union (77% to 84%) and basketball players (23% to 43%) compared with the control group (72% to 73%). All codes showed a post-campaign increase in mouthguard usage at training, but the intervention codes' increases were greater than the control's increase (rugby union: 29% to 40%; basketball: 11% to 36%; football: 34% to 40%).
Conclusions:
The campaign had a significant and substantial effect on behaviour and provides evidence of the benefits of leveraging a sponsorship to modify the behaviour of the target group.
Implications:
This campaign provides a model for promoting mouthguard usage in other sports among junior players.