Journal of North Khorasan

Abstract Background and Objectives: dental Caries prevalence is high among Iranian students. Studies have shown that motivational interviewing is able to change health behaviors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a brief intervention based on motivational interviewing in promoting oral health self-care behaviors among adolescents in Qazvin city. Material & Method: In a quasi-experimental study based on a multi-stage sampling with random selection of 4 boy-specific schools, 40 students were assigned to each of the experimental and control groups. Intervention protocol was conducted in treatment group in accordance with the recommendations of Miller and Rowling included 6 sessions (60 minute per session) based on the initial need assessment and in order to coping skills and problem solving development. Demographic variables, psychological constructs were measured using self report questionnaire before, 2 and 6 month after motivational interviewing. Finally, the data were entered into SPSS 17.0 software and was analyzed using descriptive and inferential analyses. Results: The results indicated that a significant change in the attitude (from 14.82±3.86 to 25.75 ± 3.86), behavioral intention ( from 11.03 ± 4.15 to 18.80 ± 3.37) and self efficacy (from 37.65 ± 9.43 to 52.93 ± 7.48) were seen in the experimental group 6 months after motivational interviewing (P< 0.001). furthermore, the average of brushing (from 0.79± 0.33 to 1.24 ± 0.37) and dental flossing (from 0.30 ± 0.32 to 0.42 ± 0.37) showed a significant increase in the experimental group after interviewing (P< 0.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that motivational interviewing in the individual level can lead to a better antecedent psychological constructs and promote oral health self care behavior and as an effective component of prevention and promotion programs can play an important role in oral health.