Novel behavioral model in evaluating initiation and sustenance of teeth brushing behavior among students pursuing health sciences: a cross-sectional study

Background: Oral
hygiene maintenance is a crucial and integral feature in determining the
overall wellbeing of a person. It has been
established that interventions for health promotion at the
public health level derived from theoretical models based on social and
behavioural sciences have a superior effectiveness as compared to the ones
without a theoretical background.(1) Hence a novel behavioral model known as
the multi-theory model (MTM) was used to understand two
important aspects of health behavior change: (i) Initiation and (ii) Sustenance
in twice daily teeth brushing in a university setting with objectives to identify factors effecting MTM in initiation and sustenance of twice daily brushing
behavior among students pursuing health sciences and correlating the MTM
theory with socio-demographic and behavioral patterns.

Methods: The study is an analytical cross-sectional study. Students pursuing
Medicine and Dentistry in a University setting were included. A validated
questionnaire was designed for this study . Questions
were framed to evaluate the constructs of initiation and sustenance of MTM, personality,
sleeping habits and demographic of participants . Multiple means between
the groups were compared using analysis of variance and a post hoc test.
Correlation was established between different domains, the items were then
entered for hierarchical multiple regression.

Results: Of the 235 participants in the study, 229 completed the
questionnaire. There was a significant association between brushing quartiles,
professional streams (p<0.001) and academic performance (p<0.001). The
hierarchical multiple regression revealed that at stage one, behavioral
confidence contributed significantly to the regression model (F (1,227) =
33.227, p<0.001) and accounted for 12.4% of the variation in twice daily
brushing.

Conclusion: MTM is a good tool in predicting the initiation and sustenance of
twice daily brushing behavior among young adults and can form a useful tool in
assessing the patterns of brushing behavior in a population.