This study explores patients' perceptions of positive and negative communication experiences with dentists and dental hygienists using a sample of 267 individuals who reported having a general dental provider. Patients' oral health literacy, dental mistrust, use of dental health services, anxiety, and provider satisfaction are examined on the basis of reported communication experiences in the dental context. When comparing participants who had or had not experienced positive communication with a dentist, individuals with positive experiences demonstrated significantly higher levels of oral health literacy and provider satisfaction, as well as lower levels of dental mistrust. Participants who had experienced negative communication with a dentist reported significantly higher levels of anxiety and dental mistrust, as well as greater likelihood of ever leaving a dental practice, as compared to those without negative communication experiences. By contrast, positive and negative communication experiences with hygienists had limited impact on patient outcomes. Information derived from this investigation can be used by dental providers to guide communicative actions with patients, as well as by scholars to enhance existing theoretical explanations of the function of communication in dentistry.

Background: Occupational safety and health professionals facilitate safer workplaces through the development and implementation of interventions. Empirically validated theories can enhance the likelihood that an intervention will be successful in achieving the desired outcome; however, occupational safety interventions are often devoid of theory or utilize frameworks that fail to take a comprehensive approach to conceptualizing occupational safety processes. Focus of the Article: The current paper seeks to address these gaps by proposing an interdisciplinary and integrated model of occupational safety (IIMOS). Importance to the Social Marketing Field: IIMOS takes an interdisciplinary approach, examining the combined influence of concepts from psychology, social marketing, and occupational safety on behavioral change. This model accounts for the influence that threat appraisal, coping appraisal, and customer service factors can have on safety behaviors’ initiation/adoption and maintenance. Recommendations for Research and Practice: IIMOS may inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of occupational safety and health programs. Although future empirical work must still test the model’s propositions, the model’s in-depth application of social marketing techniques is a novel addition to the field. This model can encourage practitioners to develop innovative products, build relationships with consumers, and design upstream efforts to support program adoption.

The current study evaluates the Positive Deviance Donation Collaborative, a communication training program designed to identify and disseminate behaviors of requesters with above-average rates of familial authorization to organ donation. The program initiated with a cohort of 99 requesters from 11 OPOs. Requesters' quarterly authorization rates were monitored for 33 months, and their pre-/post-intervention skills in active-empathic listening and self-efficacy to request donation were assessed. Overall, requesters' mean quarterly authorization rate was 53.69%(SD = 4.54). Multilevel models were used to examine change in authorization rates and communication skills, as well as associations between skills and authorization.Low intraclass correlation coefficients for authorization rates established that most variance was due to within-requester variation, rather than OPOs (ρ = 0.0129) or requesters within OPOs (ρ = 0.0221). Models indicated that authorization rates and communication skills failed to improve following intervention and did not identify an association between post-intervention communication skills and authorization.Results provide a framework to discuss programmatic challenges including extensive requester turnover (ie, ~60%), management of data collection across multi-site interventions, and program content. K E Y W O R D Shealth education, persuasive communication, tissue and organ procurement

This study demonstrates the age myth is negatively associated with attitudes toward registering as organ donors. The results are discussed with an emphasis on both the theoretical and practical implications of study findings.

Overall, the findings speak to the effectiveness of direct mail marketing campaign's ability to register potential organ donors. Moreover, the results reveal that it is more important who sends the message as opposed to what the message states.