title: Colour Preference to Emotions in Relation to the Anxiety Level among School Children in Puducherry - A Cross-Sectional Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dental setting plays an important role in child's behavior and cooperation to the planned dental treatment. Adding attractive colours to the dental environment and by incorporating colourful equipments can make the child feel good and be at ease. This study tries to convey the relationship between colours and dental anxiety among children.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the colour preference to emotions in relation to children's age, gender and anxiety level.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 382 children aged 6-12 years were randomly selected from schools in and around Puducherry. Modified dental anxiety scale was recorded by a calibrated examiner. Each question was scored from one (not anxious) to five (extremely anxious); such that the total score ranges from 5 to 25, wherein a score of 15 or more was considered to be anxious. Based on this, children were divided into anxious and non-anxious groups. All the children were provided with eight different coloured crayon pencils and were asked to shade two cartoon emoticons indicating happiness and sadness with their preferred colour. Values were tabulated and statistically analyzed to evaluate the association between the variables using Z test, Chi-square, Chi-square goodness of fit and odds ratio. (p≤0.05 was considered statistically significant).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 382 children, 77% (294) were graded as anxious and 23% (88) as non- anxious. For positive emotion (happiness), 31.2% (119) children preferred blue followed by pink 29.3% (112). For negative emotion (sadness), 52.1% (199) of children preferred black and 46.9% (179) preferred red. Association between colour and emotion was highly significant (p= 0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From the colours preferred by the children in our study, it can be concluded that colours like blue and pink in the dental set-up could enhance a positive attitude while black and red could develop a negative outlook in their mind.
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Student, Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth , Puducherry, India .
authors.forename: Kattakayam
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Annamary
authors.affiliation: Head of Department, Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth , Puducherry, India .
authors.forename: Gajula Shivashankarappa
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Prathima
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth , Puducherry, India .
authors.forename: Renganathan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sajeev
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth , Puducherry, India .
authors.forename: Gurusamy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kayalvizhi
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth , Puducherry, India .
authors.forename: Venkatesan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ramesh
authors.affiliation: Senior Statistician & Research Consultant, MGMC & RI, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth , Puducherry, India .
authors.forename: Govindasamy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ezhumalai
keywords: Anxious; Happiness; Non anxious; Sadness