Effect of a nationwide periodontal health campaign on dentists' awareness, attitude and behavior in Norway.

In 1980 the "Year against Periodontal Disease" was launched in Norway. The campaign was planned in two steps and aimed: 1) to improve the dentists' professional skills and 2) to raise the awareness and knowledge about periodontal disease in the public. This paper deals with the evaluation of the first step: the dentist-directed part of the campaign, during which the dentists were offered intensified continuing education and information from the Norwegian Dental Association. Afterwards, a simple precoded questionnaire was sent by mail to a sample (280) of the dentists, asking for their awareness about and attitudes towards the campaign, their participation in campaign activities and the impact of the campaign on their working routines. Of the 72% of the sample who answered, 98% were aware of the campaign, 53% reported changes in working routines and 49% had participated in upgrading courses. The age group 36-55 attended upgrading courses more frequently than younger and older colleagues. Course attendance, age, location of practice and two attitude dimensions, which emerged from factor analysis, were the most powerful variables in explaining changes in working routines.