Increasing mouthguards usage among junior rugby and basketball players

To evaluate a Western Australian mouthguard promotion campaign, launched at the start of the 1997/98 junior rugby union and junior basketball seasons, aimed at increasing mouthguard usage at competition and training. A quasi‐experimental field design was used to assess the impact of the mouthguard c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Australian and New Zealand journal of public health 2001-06, Vol.25 (3), p.250-252
Main Authors: Jalleh, Geoffrey, Donovan, Robert J., Clarkson, Johanna, March, Kyle, Foster, Mark, Giles‐Corti, Billie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Athletic Injuries - prevention & control
Basketball
Child
Competition
Football
Health Promotion - organization & administration
High school basketball
Humans
Male
Mouth Protectors - utilization
Mouthguards
Persuasive Communication
Players
Program Evaluation
Protective equipment
Quasi-experimental methods
Rugby
Soccer
Sports
Sports injuries
Training
Trauma
Western Australia
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Summary:To evaluate a Western Australian mouthguard promotion campaign, launched at the start of the 1997/98 junior rugby union and junior basketball seasons, aimed at increasing mouthguard usage at competition and training. A quasi‐experimental field design was used to assess the impact of the mouthguard campaign on behavioural change. Observational data were collected pre‐and post‐campaign on mouthguard usage by players present at a rugby and basketball competition event and at a training session. Junior Australian Rules Football players were used as a control group. Pre‐post observational surveys showed a significantly greater increase in mouthguard usage in competition games among rugby union (77% to 84%) and basketball players (23% to 43%) compared with the control group (72% to 73%). All codes showed a post‐campaign increase in mouthguard usage at training, but the intervention codes' increases were greater than the control's increase (rugby union: 29% to 40%; basketball: 11% to 36%; football: 34% to 40%). Conclusions: The campaign had a significant and substantial effect on behaviour and provides evidence of the benefits of leveraging a sponsorship to modify the behaviour of the target group. This campaign provides a model for promoting mouthguard usage in other sports among junior players.
ISSN:1326-0200
1753-6405
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-842X.2001.tb00571.x