The effect of health beliefs on the compliance of periodontal patients with oral hygiene instructions.

Problems of patient compliance in periodontics are evident. This study explored factors which may contribute to the degree of adherence. Using the "Health Belief Model" a questionnaire was constructed and administered to 120 patients of the Department of Periodontology, University of Frankfurt Dental School. Compliance of these patients during the hygienic phase was assessed using a bleeding index. The data set for statistical evaluation comprised 96 patients. The loss was due to missing of appointments and incomplete questionnaires. There was no significant correlation between patient compliance on the one hand and sociodemographic variables (age, sex, family status), disease parameters, and the health beliefs "susceptibility," "barriers," "dentist-patient-relationship," and "experience with therapy" on the other hand. "Motivation," "seriousness," "benefits," "experience with affected organ," and tooth-loss-index were significant predictors with Spearman correlation coefficients running from 0.17 to 0.32. When the predictor variables were combined the coefficient was 0.59. This study further supports the assumption that health beliefs play a significant role in the determination of health related behavior.