Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
The health belief model and preventive dental care behavior of older adults
Abstract
Older Americans are known to neglect preventive dental care behavior (ADA, 1977). The Health Belief Model is a theoretical framework which has been found useful in predicting or explaining preventive dental care behavior (Haefner, 1974). Yet the use of the Health Belief Model to understand dental care behavior of older adults has been limited (Kiyak, 1981). This study examined the theoretical foundations of the Model in the context of preventive dental care behavior of older adults. Subjects were limited to volunteers from among dentulous participants at selected sites of the Nutrition Services Program for Senior Citizens in Lancaster County, Nebraska and in Union and Mercer Counties, New Jersey. A series of pilot tests (N = 7, N = 154, and N = 95) were conducted to develop an instrument to measure the Health Belief Model variables in the context of the study. Hypothesis were tested upon a sample of 172 dentulous participants in the Nutrition Services Program. In this study, the Model predicted self-reported behaviors. However, all of the variables of the Model did not make statistically significant contributions to its ability to predict the dependent behavior variables (cleaning or a composite of brushing and flossing and visiting the dentist). The level of education of subjects contributed significantly to strenth of only one belief component of the Model. Female subjects had a significantly stronger belief than male subjects for only one component of the Model. Education and gender did not contribute significantly to the prediction of the behavior variables. Janz and Becker (1984) reported a need to refine and standardize tools to measure Model variables. This study tested a variety of operational definitions of Health Belief Model variables, many of which failed to produce separate and discrete belief entities. Instrument development is of critical importance to further application of the Model to preventive dental behavior of older adults. The Health Belief Model addresses psychosocial variables in accounting for variance in health behavior. However, the regular repeated behaviors necessary to prevent dental disease among older adults may be influenced by forces outside of the scope of the Model as defined in this study. These forces may include habit, non-health motivations, economic issues or physical factors, all of which require further examination.
Subject Area
Public health|Dental care|Gerontology
Recommended Citation
Lebel, Maureen O'Brien, "The health belief model and preventive dental care behavior of older adults" (1988). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8818636.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8818636