Mothers' role in promoting oral health in children aged 6 months to 1 year.

INTRODUCTION: It is essential for parents, and especially mothers, to become aware of the factors that affect oral health-promoting behaviors in children through behavior change theories. This study aimed to determine mothers' role in improving children's oral health based on the health belief model (HBM). METHODS: The population of this descriptive, analytical, cross-sectional study comprised 240 mothers in Ilam (Iran), selected via stratified random sampling. The data collection instrument was a self-report questionnaire with two sections, including seven demographic and contextual questions, four items for perceived severity, four items for perceived benefits, four items for perceived barriers, three items for cues to action, and five items for perceived self-efficacy. The data were analyzed in SPSS 21 by using descriptive and inferential statistics, including independent samples t-test, linear regression analysis, and Pearson correlation coefficient, at a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: The participants aged 20-47 with a mean of 31.8 ± 5.67 years. The linear regression analysis indicated that the constructs of perceived severity (B = 0.073, P < 0.001), perceived benefits (B = 0.013, P < 0.001), perceived barriers (B = 0.111, P < 0.01), cues to action (B = 0.517, P < 0.001), and perceived self-efficacy (B = 0.292, P < 0.001) explained 55% of the variance of behavioral intention. CONCLUSION: With respect to the effects of perceived barriers and perceived severity on predicting oral health behaviors, effective outcomes can be achieved by emphasizing these two constructs in educational programs based on the HBM.

Family-Centered Social Cognitive Factors Preventing Primary Tooth Caries in Children Based on Intervention Mapping Approach.

BACKGROUND: Given the increasing prevalence of primary tooth caries in Iran and the importance of providing evidence- and theory-based family-centered prevention programs, the present study is aimed at determining the family-centered social cognitive factors preventing deciduous tooth caries among children using the intervention mapping protocol. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on 240 Iranian mothers in Ilam who were randomly selected to participate in the study. The data were collected using a self-designed questionnaire including items on demographic information and social cognitive constructs (knowledge, attitude, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, practice guidance, perceived self-efficacy, behavior intention, subjective norms, and social norms). The questionnaire was completed by mothers, and the data were analyzed by performing one-way analysis of variance and linear regression. RESULTS: The results obtained from linear regression analysis showed that perceived self-efficacy (B = 0.295, p < 0.001), perceived barriers (B = 0.084, p < 0.028), practice guidance (B = 0.774, p < 0.001), and social norms (B = 0.137, p < 0.020) accounted for 71% of the behavioral intention variance and were the most important predictors for preventing primary tooth caries among children. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that perceived self-efficacy, perceived barriers, practice guidance, and social norms are essential for developing family-centered programs to prevent primary tooth caries in children.

A behavioral strategy to minimize air pollution exposure in pregnant women: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Pregnant women and their fetus belong to a sensitive group in response to air pollution hazards. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a theory-based educational program to change pollution exposure behavior in pregnant women. METHODS: In this randomized controlled trial, pregnant women attending a prenatal clinic in Tehran, Iran were selected and randomized into the experimental and control groups. The inclusion criteria were age between 18 and 35 years, having a history of pregnancies without adverse outcomes and not suffering from chronic diseases. Data collected at baseline and 2-month follow-up. At baseline face-to-face interviews were conducted using a valid and reliable questionnaire including items on demographic characteristics, stages of change, self-efficacy, decisional balance and practice regarding air pollution preventive behaviors. The intervention composed of three parts: motivational interviewing, a booklet and daily small message service (SMS). The control group received no intervention except receiving usual care. Follow-up data were collected after the intervention. Data were analyzed performing t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, and chi-squared. RESULTS: In all the data for 104 pregnant women (53 in the intervention and 51 in the control group) were analyzed. The mean age of participants was 27.2 (SD = 4.11) years and it was 22.89 (SD = 8.75) weeks for gestational age. At baseline there were no significant statistical differences between intervention and control groups on the study measures while we found significant group differences in terms of stages of change, self-efficacy, perceived benefits and practice regarding air pollution preventive behaviors at follow-up assessment (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The findings indicated that the TTM-based intervention was effective in increasing air pollution preventive behaviors among pregnant women. This study provided a framework to modify some psychosocial determinants of air pollution preventive behavior other than knowledge using constructs of Transtheoretical model of behavior change, additionally results suggests the importance of education and makes enlightenment of the air pollution risk knowledge accelerate. TRIAL REGISTRATION: IRCT2012091010804N1.

Factors Associated with Anger among Male Adolescents in Western Iran: An Application of Social Cognitive Theory.

INTRODUCTION: Anger can be defined a natural emotional response that is gradually formed to protect us in dealing with threats, damages, assaults, and failures; while hatred is a change of attitude which is built following the persistence of anger towards a subject or an individual. One of the main reasons of adolescents' reference to the counseling centers is their anger accompanied by violence. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine the social cognitive factors associated with anger among a population of adolescents in the west of Iran based on the social cognitive theory. METHODOLOGY: Samples were selected based on multi-stage cluster sampling. Method including the first and the second-grade male high school students from Ilam town (N=360). The Spielberger's anger questionnaire (STAXI 2) and a self-designed questionnaire based on Bandura's social cognitive theory were employed as the data collection instruments in the present study. RESULTS: Of the selected population, 200 students were the first-grade and 160 students were the second-grade students. 135 students were the first child of the family, 150 students were the second or the third birth, and 75 students were the fifth or above in their families. Descriptive tests and correlation analysis were used to conduct the statistical analysis. Although there was a significant and inverse relationship between all the components of the theory and anger, the strongest relationship was seen in self-efficacy (-0.585) and the weakest relationship was seen in modeling (-0.297). DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION: If was concluded that helping people to know their abilities and have a better personal judgment in this case, can influence their anger control. In addition, the process of stress management can effectively increase an individual's emotional coping.

Introducing a new measure for assessing self-efficacy in response to air pollution hazards for pregnant women.

A self-efficacy instrument should be condition-specific. There are several instruments for measuring self-efficacy, but none are air pollution-specific. This study aimed to develop a self-efficacy measure for assessing pregnant women's responses to air pollution hazards. A random sample of pregnant women aged between 18 and 35 years attending three prenatal care centers were entered into the study. Prenatal care centers randomly selected from a list of centers located in different geographical regions of Tehran, Iran. After careful consideration and performing content and face validity, a 4-item measure was developed and participants completed the questionnaire. Reliability was estimated using internal consistency and validity was assessed by performing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and known group comparison. In all 200 eligible pregnant women were studied. The mean age of participants was 26.9 (SD = 4.8) years and it was 27.9 (SD = 9.1) weeks for gestational age. The findings showed almost perfect results for both content validity ratio (CVR = 1) and content validity index (CVI = 1). The confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit to the data, and known group comparison revealed satisfying results. Internal consistency as measured by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found to be 0.74. In general, the findings suggest that this new generated scale is a reliable and valid specific measure of self-efficacy in response to air pollution hazards for pregnant women. However, further studies are needed to establish stronger psychometric properties for the questionnaire.

Intention to start cigarette smoking among Iranian male adolescents: usefulness of an extended version of the theory of planned behaviour.

BACKGROUND: Smoking is one of the risk behaviours that begin in adolescence, and therefore identifying predictors of smoking is necessary for planning prevention programmes. OBJECTIVES: To examine the ability of the extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to predict the intention to smoke. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study carried out in Iran, 2011. The data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire which included items on demographics, smoking behaviour, components of the TPB model (attitude, subjective norms, perceived behaviour control and intention) and an added construct on smoking self-identity. Data were analysed using descriptive, correlation and linear regression statistics. RESULTS: 365 male high school students with a mean age of 16.5 (SD=1.2) years were studied. Fifty-five (15.1%) of the students surveyed were current smokers. All components of the TPB model and smoking self identity were statistically significantly related to intention to smoke (p<0.001). The TPB constructs with and without smoking self-identity accounted for 58.5% (adjusted R(2)) and 54.8% of the variance observed for intention to smoke, respectively. Result also revealed the highest weights for perceived behaviour control (ß=-0.35). CONCLUSIONS: The extended model of the TPB predicted 'intention to smoke' better than the original TPB. The findings of this study might be used as a framework in designing heart disease prevention programmes. Thus the findings have implications for both health promotion specialists and cardiologists. They could place an emphasis on perceived behaviour control, specifying that individuals who do not smoke should not start and if they are smokers it is possible to stop smoking.