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Dental flossing behaviour and its determinants among students in a suburb area of Tehran–Iran: using Transtheoretical Model
Author(s) -
Kamalikhah T,
Mazllomi Mahmood abad Ss,
Khalighinejad N,
RahmatiNajarkolaei F
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of dental hygiene
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.674
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1601-5037
pISSN - 1601-5029
DOI - 10.1111/idh.12154
Subject(s) - transtheoretical model , interdental consonant , medicine , cluster sampling , logistic regression , self efficacy , test (biology) , clinical psychology , behavior change , environmental health , dentistry , psychology , population , social psychology , biology , paleontology , pathology
Objectives Oral health problems are a global concern particularly among underprivileged groups. This study aimed to use TTM model to assess the flossing behaviour and its determinants among students in a suburb area and compare the flossing behaviour between boys and girls using TTM . Methods Cluster sampling was employed to recruit 653 high school students from eight schools in Tehran suburban area, Iran. Two self‐administrated questionnaires: (i) stage of change questionnaire and (ii) TTM constructs questionnaire including demographic features, decisional balance (perceived benefits and barriers), self‐efficacy and process of change were used to assess the flossing behaviour and its psychological determinants. The statistical analysis of the data included Kruskal–Wallis test, t ‐test, anova , Spearman correlation and binary logistic regression using SPSS ver15 software. Results In this study, 301 (46.1%) and 352 (53.9%) of participants were women and men, respectively. Nearly half of the students (51.4%) were in precontemplation stage with the rest distributed among the other stages of flossing behaviour change. There was no statistically significant difference between genders regarding the stages of change ( P < 0.05). Flossing behaviour is related to TTM constructs such as self‐efficacy, perceived benefits, low perceived barriers and process of changes. Conclusion According to the results of this study, TTM is useful in determining the stages of interdental cleaning behaviour among students. However, further interventional researches are suggested to support the potential for eventual use of the TTM as a framework for understanding the determinants of interdental cleaning behaviour.