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Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis logoLink to Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
. 1976 Winter;9(4):387–397. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1976.9-387

Behavioral community psychology: encouraging low-income parents to seek dental care for their children.

M L Reiss, W D Piotrowski, J S Bailey
PMCID: PMC1312035  PMID: 826516

Abstract

The present study examined the effectiveness and cost efficiency of three different techniques to encourage low-income rural parents to seek dental care for their children. The families of 51 children who needed immediate dental care (determined by dental screening at a local school) were placed into three matched groups and randomly assigned to the treatment conditions: One Prompt (Note Only), Three Prompt (Note, Telephone Contact, Home Visit), and One Prompt plus $5 Incentive- The Three Prompt and One Prompt plus $5 Incentive were significantly more effective in initiating dental visits than the Note-Only procedure. Not only was the One Prompt plus $5 Incentive technique effective in producing a slightly larger percentage of initial dental visits compared to the Three-Prompt technique, it also produced a significantly larger number of followup visits. Furthermore, the cost-effectiveness analysis showed the Incentive condition to be less costly than the Three-Prompt condition in encouraging initial dental visits.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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