Effects of dental health care instruction on knowledge, attitude, behavior and fear

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Abstract
A field experiment was done to assess the effects of 2 methods of dental health instruction on knowledge, attitude, reported behavior and fear. Subjects (n = 108) were male and female inhabitants of Abcoude, a suburban Dutch village of .apprx. 7000 inhabitants. There were 3 conditions, 2 experimental and 1 control. Subjects of experimental condition 1 were given a 30-min personal instruction on dental hygiene; subjects of experimental condition 2 received the same instruction preceded by a 10-min instructional film on dental hygiene. Subjects of the control condition received no instruction. Half of each group was pretested. All subjects were posttested 6-12 mo. after the dental health education. Mean postscores of control subjects were significantly lower than either mean of postscores of condition 1 subjects (on attitude and 3 behavioral aspects) or mean postscores of condition 2 subjects (on knowledge, attitude and 1 behavioral aspect). There were no significant differences between the 2 experimental conditions or between the pretested and non-pretested groups.