title: Television-based health promotion in general practice waiting rooms in London: a cross-sectional study evaluating patients' knowledge and intentions to access dental services.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study aimed to evaluate whether television-based dental health promotion initiatives in General Practice waiting rooms would increase patients' knowledge of and intentions to seek dental services.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional survey of 2,345 patients attending 49 General Practices in Brent, northwest London, evaluated the 'Life Channel' - a series of six brief health promotion advertisements, including one dental health promotion advertisement, displayed over ten minutes on television in General Practice waiting rooms. Primary outcome measures were a self-reported gain in the knowledge to contact a National Health Service (NHS) and emergency dentist, and an intention to seek dental services, attributed to viewing the Life Channel.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 1,088 patients who did not know how to contact an NHS dentist prior to the survey, and the 1,247 patients who did not know how to contact an emergency dentist prior to the survey, 48.0 % (95 % CI 45.0-51.0 %) and 35.1 % (95 % CI 32.4-37.8 %) attributed the Life Channel to educating them how to do so, respectively. Among the 1,605 patients who did not have any intention to contact a dentist prior to the survey, 15.2 % (95 % CI 13.4-17.0 %) attributed the Life Channel to creating such an intention. We report adjusted odds ratios on sociodemographic disparities in this evaluation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Television-based dental health promotion may significantly increase knowledge of and intention to seek dental services in this sample in London. Television-based dental health promotion may appeal more to certain population groups. More research is needed to identify longer term outcomes of television-based health promotion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, W6 8RP, UK. mohammed.jawad06@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1051-2136
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jawad
authors.affiliation: Independent researcher, London, UK.
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ingram
authors.affiliation: Public Health Consultant, NHS Brent, London, UK.
authors.forename: Imran
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Choudhury
authors.affiliation: Health Improvement Specialist, NHS Brent, London, UK.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Airebamen
authors.affiliation: Health Improvement Specialist, NHS Brent, London, UK.
authors.forename: Kostakis
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Christodoulou
authors.affiliation: Health Improvement Specialist, NHS Brent, London, UK.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wilson Sharma
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003729:Dental Care; D058006:General Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008131:London; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D013690:Television
keywords: Audio-visual; Family health; General practice; Health promotion; Television