title: Impact of a healthy nails program on nail-biting in Turkish schoolchildren: a controlled pretest-posttest study.
abstract: This study was conducted to examine the effect of a healthy nails program on nail-biting in Turkish schoolchildren. This quasi-experimental study was of pretest-posttest control group design. A total of 50 students of a primary school formed the intervention group, while 53 students from the same school formed the control group. Data were collected with a demographic form, a nail-biting follow-up form, and photographs of the fingernails. It was found that 68.9% of students were biting seven or more of their nails; 46.6% had damaged nail beds. In the intervention group, the rate of the children who were not biting their nails (baseline = 0%, 4th week = 56.0%, 8th week = 64.0%) increased significantly compared to the control group (baseline = 0%, 4th week = 15.1%, 8th week = 18.9%). Outcomes indicate the efficacy of the healthy nails program in reducing the nail-biting problem in schoolchildren.
authors.affiliation: 1Faculty of Health Science, Public Health Nursing Department, Division of Nursing, Marmara Unıversity, Haydarpasa, Uskudar-Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ayse
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ergun
authors.forename: Rumeysa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Toprak
authors.forename: Fatma Nevin
authors.initials: FN
authors.lastname: Sisman
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009259:Nail Biting / Q000628:therapy*; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey
keywords: elementary; health education; program development/evaluation; role promotion/development