The relationship between the multidimensional health locus of control and the performance of subjects on a preventive periodontal programme.

Criteria have been defined to quantify a personality characteristic-termed locus of control. The criterion at one extreme of this range was referred to as external, indicating a belief that health was determined by a variety of other factors such as powerful other individuals or by chance. The criterion at the other extreme was termed internal, indicating a belief that health might be modified by the behaviour pattern of the individual. Locus of control scales have been used to relate psychological factors to physical disease, and the response of patients to disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether locus of control could be used to anticipate the response of subjects to a plaque control programme. A study was carried out on 14 males and 46 females to investigate the relationship between the multidimensional health locus of control (MHLC) and the response of a group of office workers to a plaque control programme. It was found that there was significant correlation between the external MHLC dimension of powerful others and improvement in some of the clinical criteria; a similar result was found for the internal dimension of the MHLC. In contrast, there was minimal correlation between the external dimension of the MHLC termed chance and the clinical results. It was concluded that subjects who perceive their susceptibility to disease being influenced by powerful external factors or who believe that susceptibility can be controlled by their own actions, respond more positively to a plaque control regime than those subjects who consider that susceptibility to disease is an event of chance.