Increasing mouthguards usage among junior rugby and basketball players.
OBJECTIVE
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.


METHODS
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.


RESULTS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
This campaign provides a model for promoting mouthguard usage in other sports among junior players.
Jalleh
G
G
Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control, Division of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia. g.jalleh@cc.curtin.edu.au
Donovan
R J
RJ
Clarkson
J
J
March
K
K
Foster
M
M
Giles-Corti
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001490:Basketball; D002648:Child; D005538:Football; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009064:Mouth Protectors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014904:Western Australia