Abstract

Information Processing Theory and Improving Health Model by nursing interventions were applied to adolescents with low oral and dental health behavior. The method of study has an experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups. According to the results of oral health care form, individuals that are chosen from bottom 25% of the attitude scale were placed in the experimental (n=40) and control (n=40) groups randomly. The data were collected by four different forms of which are personal information form, multi-dimensional oral health control scale (MOHLCS), oral health care form (ODHB) and oral examination form. Increased mean internal focus control point which was a sub-scale of MOHLCS scale was found in the experimental group compared to control group. The mean score of ODHB after the post test and re-test between the groups, a statistically significant difference was determined in favor of the experimental group. Conclusions: The nursing attempts that were applied to Pender’s Health Promotion Model and Gagne’s Theory of Information Proccessing were effective for improving the oral health behavior.

Key words: Adolescents, oral health, health promotion, nursing interventions, theory