Psychosocial determinants of oral health behaviour in adolescents

Data sourcesPubMed, Embase, Ebsco/PsycInfo, Ebsco/CINAHL and ISI/Web of Science databases.Study selectionStudies that evaluated the association between the psychosocial correlates and oral hygiene behaviour varying from self-reports to clinical measurements, including plaque and bleeding scores were considered.Data extraction and synthesisTwo reviewers independently selected studies, abstracted data and assessed study quality using a modified version of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale.ResultsTwenty-four studies were included providing 31 datasets. Three studies were prospective, the remainder being cross-sectional. 39% of the studies based their research on a behavioural theory, 61% of the studies did not refer to a specific theoretical framework. The theory of planned behaviour was the most commonly used. Meta-analysis of 27 data sets; for both tooth brushing and oral hygiene behaviour, random effect models revealed significant weighted average correlation (r₊) for the psychosocial factors: 'intention', 'self-efficacy', 'attitude' (not significant for tooth brushing), 'social influence', 'coping planning' and 'action planning' (r₊ ranging from 0.18 to 0.57). Little or no associations were found for 'locus of control', 'self-esteem' and 'sense of coherence' (r₊ ranges from 0.01 to 0.08).ConclusionsThe data at present indicate that 'self-efficacy', 'intention', 'social influences', 'coping planning' and 'action planning' are potential psychosocial determinants of oral health behaviour. Future studies should consider a range of psychological factors that have not been studied, but have shown to be important psychosocial determinants of health behaviours, such as 'self-determination', 'anticipated regret', 'action control' and 'self-identity'. Effectiveness of addressing these potential determinants to induce behaviour change should be further examined by intervention trials.