The role of behavioral technology in the promotion of oral health behavior

Abstract

This study implemented two behavior management strategies, self-monitoring and monetary incentives, in a dental clinic and a private periodontal practice to explore the effects of these intervention strategies on subjects' dental flossing frequencies and to compare these strategies to standard educational procedures. Group analysis of four dependent variables generally showed minimal impact of the intervention strategies on flossing frequency. However, when the percentages of subjects within groups who improved on the dependent measures were evaluated, differential effects for some dependent variables were noted between settings and among intervention strategies. Based on those findings, the behavioral strategies of self-monitoring and monetary incentives did appear to enhance the effectiveness of education.

Multimodal measures were used to assess changes in the target behavior. The general lack of covariance found among the dependent measures used in this study demonstrated that the interpretation varied with the choice of dependent variable. This finding suggested that past researchers, who used only physiological dependent measures to assess changes in the frequencies of dental flossing and brushing behaviors, should have selected more direct measures of the targeted behaviors (e.g. unobtrusive measures or direct observations).