Oral Health Literacy: Decision-Making and Reading Comprehension Skills as the Determinants of Self-Reported Oral Health.

Abstract

Objectives: Oral health literacy (OHL) is a concept far beyond reading and including other skills such as numeracy skills, listening, and decision-making. Self-reported oral health(SROH) is a reliable and cost-effective measure of dental and periodontal conditions. The current study aimed to evaluate the association between various aspects of OHL and SROH. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among adults visiting a dental school. One interviewer asked each individual "How would you describe your oral health at present?" to measure SROH. Two response categories were "good" and "poor". OHL-AQ (Oral Health Literacy Adult Questionnaire) was used to measure different aspects of OHL (Reading comprehension and knowledge, listening, numeracy and communication, and decision-making skills). The total scores ranged from 0 and 17. To analyze the data binary logistic regression and chi-square tests were performed. (P=0.05) Results: Totally 253 adults participated. Most participants (65.21%) were females. The numbers of subjects with good and poor SROH were 127(50.20%) and 126(49.80%) respectively. The mean age of the participants was 37.75±10.69 years and ranged from 18 to 65 years. The overall mean OHL score was 11.74±3.12. Out of the components of OHL in OHL-AQ, reading comprehension and knowledge skills (p=0.032), and decision-making skills (p=0.013) had a significant positive correlation with good SROH. In contrast, listening (p=0.955) and numeracy skills (p=0.349) did not exhibit a similar association. Conclusion: OHL level, particularly decision-making, reading comprehension, and knowledge skills, is associated with SROH.