Colour Preference to Emotions in Relation to the Anxiety Level among School Children in Puducherry A Cross Sectional Study.
INTRODUCTION 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. AIM To evaluate the colour preference to emotions in relation to children's age, gender and anxiety level. MATERIALS AND 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) CONCLUSION 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.
Journal of clinical and diagnostic research JCDR