Oral and dental health care during pregnancy: Evaluating a theory-driven intervention

The present research aimed to investigate the effect of an educational intervention based on the health belief model in pregnant women visiting the healthcare centers in the west of Tehran in 2016.

The present experimental research was conducted on 135 pregnant women visiting the healthcare centers in the west of Tehran. The subjects were selected through a randomized multistratified sampling and were divided into an experimental and a control group. The collected data were then statistically analyzed in SPSS ver.16. To do so, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used including the independent-samples t-test, repeated-measures one-way ANOVA and paired-sample t-test.

The present findings revealed a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of immediate post-test results including perceived sensitivity, severity, benefits, barriers, and self-efficacy along with awareness and performance constructs (p ˂ 0.001). Moreover, two months after the intervention, except for the perceived sensitivity construct (p = 0.088), the two groups diverged significantly in terms of the other constructs (p ˂ 0.001).

The educational intervention driven by the health belief theory showed to be effective on pregnant women and can help to promote preventive behaviors of tooth decay.