Abstract
Objective: To compare the effectiveness of a traditional educational intervention with other two based on the implementation intentions psychological model on clinical and cognitive aspects related to the oral health of schoolchildren. Material and Methods: A sample of 160 children aged 7-10 years was divided into three groups: control (CG), Intervention 1 (IG1) and Intervention 2 (IG2). Plaque index (PI), gingival bleeding index (GBI) and knowledge on the oral health of schoolchildren were collected at baseline, 30, 60 and 120 days. All groups participated in educational lectures and had individual tooth brushing supervision and children from IG1 and IG2 participated in a self-regulatory strategy called implementation intentions aimed at facilitating behavior of brushing teeth at least three times a day. In addition, children from IG2 participated in a collaborative implementation intentions strategy with their parents in order motivate them to develop the behavior with their children. Results: All groups showed reductions in PI and GBI values and improvements in oral health knowledge, but IG1 and IG2 showed statistically significant differences in these variables compared to CG. Conclusion: The use of the Implementation Intentions psychological model in oral health educational programs showed a greater impact on the knowledge about oral health and plaque index of schoolchildren compared to traditional educational programs.
Highlights
Interventions aimed to educate and motivate children may help them to cope with difficulties in achieving and maintain their oral health [1]
At the end of the study, there was sample loss especially after the period of school vacation, 70 children remained in Control Group (CG), 55 children in Intervention Group 1 (IG1) and 35 children in Intervention Group 2 (IG2)
The highest sample loss was observed in IG2, because some parents did not attend the lecture about oral health, which was part of the implementation intentions strategy
Summary
Interventions aimed to educate and motivate children may help them to cope with difficulties in achieving and maintain their oral health [1]. Recent researches have confirmed that even after people set a goal to change their behavior and are motivated to fulfill it, they need to overcome difficulties inherent to behavior initiation to, execute the behavior To achieve this objective, a psychological theory was elaborated, which presents the presupposition that an anticipated mental behavior planning that the person wishes to implement to reach goals and the choice of situations more favorable to perform them ("when", "where" and "how"), may help them overcome problems associated with the implementation of the desired behavioral objectives. “Implementation Intentions" is considered a suitable self-regulatory strategy when dealing to overcoming problems related to the initiation of behavior directed to a specific objective, increasing probabilities of automation in these situations [8] This strategy includes ‘obstacleovercome planning’, in which the individual identifies risk situations or barriers that may obstruct or negatively interfere in behavior performance [9] and elaborates a response to cope with this situation [10]. The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of a traditional oral health education intervention with two others based on the Implementation Intentions theory on clinical and cognitive aspects of oral health among schoolchildren
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