Association of Emotional Intelligence with Oral and General Health Behaviours among Corporate professionals – A Cross-sectional Correlational Study

Abstract

Background: In recent years public health research increased its focus on Psycho social determinants of health related behaviors. Various psychological constructs like sense of coherence are related to oral and general health behaviors. A less researched yet another possible construct in this aspect is Emotional Intelligence (EI). Aim and objectives: To assess Association of EI with General health and Oral health behaviours among corporate professionals in Mysore city, India. Methodology: A Cross-sectional was conducted during April 2010 among 478 corporate professionals. Selfadministered questionnaires were utilized to obtain information on general health behavior (GHB) and Oral health behavior (OHB).The EI of the participants were assessed by Trait EI (short version) questionnaire. Total EI, oral and general health behavior scores were calculated. Data was analyzed using SPSS version17. Results: Positive correlation was observed between total EI score with OHB score which was very highly significant (p=0.000). Similar correlation observed between total EI score and GHB scores which was again very highly significant (p=0.000). Those who had early onset of smoking and alcohol in their life, showed lesser EI scores in our study (p=0.005) which was statistically significant. After controlling effect of age and qualification on Oral and general health behavior, total EI was positively correlated with oral health and general health behavior scores (p = 0.000). Conclusion: The study results supported the hypotheses of a positive association between EI with OHB & GHB. Higher EI is a protective factor against potential health threatening behaviors like tobacco and alcohol use. Key words: Emotional intelligence, health behavior, oral health behavior, smoking and alcohol