Effectiveness of brief motivational interviewing on perceived importance, interest and self-efficacy of oral health behaviors: A randomized clinical trial.

Objective: To investigate periodontal patients' perceived importance, interest and self-efficacy of oral hygiene (OH) behaviors. Methods: Secondary outcomes from a randomized single-site examiner-blinded clinical trial investigated the control group (traditional oral hygiene instructions) and the test group (brief motivational interviewing) over four time points. Analyses were performed using R version 4.1.1. Results: Sixty participants were eligible, and 58 completed the pre and post questionnaires for a 97% response rate. Importance was higher in the test group for good oral health and daily oral self-care (4.86 vs. 4.80). Interest in taking care of teeth and gums and changing a homecare routine was higher in the test group (4.89). Self-efficacy was higher in the test group for taking care of teeth and gums (4.18 vs. 4.07), making a change to improve oral health (4.29 vs. 4.27), and maintaining a change long-term (4.32 vs. 4.17). Statistical significance for self-efficacy was achieved for maintaining an OH behavior long-term. Conclusion: A brief motivational interviewing intervention was superior to enhance perceived importance, interest and self-efficacy of oral hygiene behaviors. Innovation: Contrary to previous motivational interviewing research, this study used a novel approach to evaluate MI-fidelity to determine the most effective MI strategies to support self-efficacy.