The proposed study aims to test the effects of cognitive and behavioral strategies for instructing older persons about oral health upon the individual's perceived need for and use of professional dental services and on the individual's home care behaviors. The ultimate goal of this project is to enhance the oral health of older persons through greater awareness of the importance of oral health, through increased utilization of dental services and better home care. Two instructional methods and two content approaches will be compared with a control condition: (1) A cognitive restructuring approach to changing older person's oral health attitudes and behaviors will be compared with one that uses self-monitoring techniques in addition to cognitive restructuring. (2) An oral health promotion program alone will be compared with a general health promotion effort into which oral health is integrated. (3) A control condition with no experimental interventions will be required at each site. Ten elderly persons will participate in each intervention and control condition at each of four Seattle-area SPICE (School Programs Involving City's Elderly) sites, or 50 subjects per site. The immediate and long-term effects of each intervention on oral health attitudes, dental service utilization, self-reported oral home care and objectively assessed levels of plaque, gingival bleeding, and the incidence of root caries will be determined by measuring these variables immediately after the interventions, 3 and 12 months later, and comparing these findings with baseline levels.
| Lee, J; Kiyak, H A (1992) Oral disease beliefs, behaviors, and health status of Korean-Americans. J Public Health Dent 52:131-6 |
