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

<b>Background:<i> </i></b>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. <b><i></i></b> <b>Methods</b>: 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. <b>Results</b>: Of the 235 participants in the study, 229 completed the questionnaire. There was a significant association between brushing quartiles, professional streams (p&lt;0.001) and academic performance (p&lt;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&lt;0.001) and accounted for 12.4% of the variation in twice daily brushing. <b>Conclusion:</b> 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.