Objectives To determine whether general dental practitioners (GDPs) currently provide alcohol-related advice (ARA) and to inform the development of an intervention, should one be required. Method Cross-sectional postal survey of a random sample of 300 GDPs in Scotland. The questionnaire assessed beliefs derived from psychological models that explain behaviour in terms of beliefs that are amenable to change, and so may inform development of an intervention to encourage the provision of ARA. Results Sixty percent of GDPs responded. Eighty-three percent of participating GDPs (145/175) had not provided ARA to patients in the previous ten working days. Attitude (perceived consequences), control beliefs (perceived difficulty), subjective norm (perceived social pressure), and self-efficacy (confidence) significantly predicted intention to provide ARA. Alcohol-related knowledge or personal alcohol behaviour did not predict intention to provide ARA. Conclusions There is scope to increase the provision of ARA in primary care dentistry and this study identified predictive beliefs, which could be targeted to encourage this behaviour. The next phase is to develop and test an intervention to encourage GDPs to provide ARA.
AB -Objectives To determine whether general dental practitioners (GDPs) currently provide alcohol-related advice (ARA) and to inform the development of an intervention, should one be required. Method Cross-sectional postal survey of a random sample of 300 GDPs in Scotland. The questionnaire assessed beliefs derived from psychological models that explain behaviour in terms of beliefs that are amenable to change, and so may inform development of an intervention to encourage the provision of ARA. Results Sixty percent of GDPs responded. Eighty-three percent of participating GDPs (145/175) had not provided ARA to patients in the previous ten working days. Attitude (perceived consequences), control beliefs (perceived difficulty), subjective norm (perceived social pressure), and self-efficacy (confidence) significantly predicted intention to provide ARA. Alcohol-related knowledge or personal alcohol behaviour did not predict intention to provide ARA. Conclusions There is scope to increase the provision of ARA in primary care dentistry and this study identified predictive beliefs, which could be targeted to encourage this behaviour. The next phase is to develop and test an intervention to encourage GDPs to provide ARA.
KW - BRIEF INTERVENTIONS KW - CLINICIAN BEHAVIOR KW - GENERAL-PRACTICE KW - PUBLIC-HEALTH KW - ORAL-CANCER KW - PROMOTION KW - DRINKERS KW - DRINKING KW - DENTISTS KW - EPIDEMIOLOGY U2 - 10.1038/sj.bdj.2011.822 DO - 10.1038/sj.bdj.2011.822 M1 - Article JO - British Dental Journal JF - British Dental Journal SN - 0007-0610 IS - 7 October VL - 211 SP - - ER -