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Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Promoting oral hygiene behavior in recruits in the Dutch Army
Yvonne A B Buunk-Werkhoven1, Arie Dijkstra, Henk van der Wal
1Research Group in Health Care and Nursing, Hanze University Applied Sciences, Groningen Eyssoniusplein 18, Postbus 3109, 9701 DC, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Objectives:
To make practical recommendations for improving oral hygiene behavior (OHB) potential predictors based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) were assessed. Measurements of oral health knowledge (OHK) and the expected social effect for having healthy teeth were included.
Methods:
216 recruits in the Dutch Army ground forces completed a questionnaire about oral hygiene behavior, attitudes, social norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), intention to perform optimal OHB, OHK, and expected social outcomes.
Results:
The multivariate regression analysis revealed that attitude and PBC explained 37.2% of the variance in intention to perform optimal oral hygiene behavior, which is a substantial proportion. Furthermore, actual oral hygiene behavior was only predicted by attitude, explaining 7.1% of the variance.
Conclusion:
The present findings suggest that recruits' oral hygiene behavior may be improved by promoting a more positive attitude and especially by enhancing perceived behavior control.
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