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Impact of theory-based educational intervention on promotion of cariesprevention behaviors in Iranian mothers with 3-6-year-old children

Effat Hatefnia, Afsaneh Alinasab1, Mostafa Ghorbani

Background and Objective: Early childhood caries as one of the dental diseases is highly prevalent among Iranian children. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of theory-based educational intervention on promotion of caries-prevention behaviors in mothers with children of three to six years of age in Fooman city.

Materials and Methods: This was an interventional quasi-experimental study and the population consisted of mothers with children of 3 to 6 years of age who referred to health care centers of Fooman city. A simple random sampling was conducted to select the intervention and control groups. The data collection tool was a questionnaire which has developed based on the theory of planned behavior. The data analysis was done using SPSS software version 20.

Results: Descriptive analysis showed that among 80 participants, 57.5% had referred for their children’s routine dental visits while 42.5% had not referred for their children’s routine dental visits. Correlation Matrix illustrated a significant and direct correlation between the participants’ knowledge, attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control have with their intention to perform behavior. The results showed a statistically significant difference in mean scores of knowledge, attitude, subjective norms, intention, perceived behavioural control and tooth brushing behavior among mothers with 3-6- year-old Children in the experimental group after the educational intervention compared to the control group (P<0.001).

Conclusion: The use of educational methods based on the theory of planned behavior in mothers of 3-6- year-old children can be effective in prevention of oral diseases and improvement of children's oral health behaviors.