Tom Pote
Health Behavior
Assignment 4
The purpose of this study was to examine the connection between the
intention of brushing teeth and the attitude and subjective norms in oral
health to further understand the documented occurrence of tooth brushing,
dental caries, HbAlc level and diabetes adherence
Subjects were chosen who consented to partake in the study, whose
IDDM had been diagnosed at least 6 months prior and who had their natural
teeth
Patients were not randomly selected, however, they were chosen from
patients who visited the diabetes clinics during the sampling days
The researchers collected the data by administrating a self-completed
questionnaire They used a questionnaire in which the subjects were asked
to give a point value to their answers within the given ranking system
The authors discovered the subjects willingness to brush their teeth
has strong correlation to their frequency of tooth brushing A persons
age, sex, basic and professional education plays a role in their
determination to do so
Subjective norms related to the opinions of people who were important
to the patients were key to their positive attitudes and behavior
More of
the respondents 68 who reported a higher agreement concerning the
subjective norm brushed their teeth at least twice a day, however, the
percentage among the other informants was 32
Females had a better attitude about tooth brushing and it was not
related to education or age A better attitude toward tooth brushing was
also related to a higher frequency of tooth brushing
The relationship between attitudes toward brushing and the presence of
cavities decayed surfaces had a negative correlation with attitude to
tooth brushing
Families and co-workers should be included in encouraging better
dental care among diabetics because this study proved the importance of the
social environment to diabetics Their results suggest that health
education that health education promoting dental attitude may also have a
positive effect on diabetes adherence
Source:umwafunds.org
