Communication factor analysis of pediatric dental patients for developing health communication system

Abstract

We aimed to find factors that affect communication between dentists and pediatric patients and determined the effectiveness of the patients request form designed for specific techniques. First of all, in order to develop a pediatric-focused communication system, we have researched the communication characteristics of pediatric patients through references that have been studied so far and gathered the words considered important that could be said by patients during the treatment. Then, based on results of the reference studies, primary words were drawn from pediatric patients through in-depth interviews. Based on the results of the reference studies, individual in-depth interviews with children were conducted to derive keywords that are actually reported by the patients. The experiment was conducted using independent variables to verify the use of pediatric patients’ requests that affect communication by reflecting the requests from children in a system based on references and individual in-depth interviews with the children. In-depth individual interviews that explore the communication characteristics of pediatric dental patients were conducted on 10 children who have dental experience. The program, which was built and designed based on the communication characteristics of pediatric patients, analyzes the patients’ requests, including the oral hygiene status of the patients collected in real time. Then, the program was designed in a way that it can be offered to the dentist as a report that analyzes the communication characteristics of pediatric patients. It also is provided to pediatric patients as video clips about the treatment information before cure. The actual experiment was conducted with 105 pediatric patients who needed examinations and treatments and measured a relation between applying for requests related to the dental treatment and the satisfaction with the dental treatment. The results supported the hypothesis that program use increases the patients’ request usage and satisfaction. The control group showed a significantly lower request usage rate and satisfaction with dental treatment.