Dentistry

Oral health literacy and its relationship with clinical indicators of oral health among patients admitted to a university dental clinic in Iran in 2016

24^th International Conference on Dental Education

March 18-19, 2019 | Paris, France

Samin Sirous, Hajar Shekarchizadeh and Fatemeh Rashidi

Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Iran

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Dentistry

Abstract:

Methods: Applying a convenience sampling method, we conducted a cross-sectional study on 202 patients who were admitted to the dental clinic of Islamic Azad University of Isfahan. Self-administered questionnaires (oral health literacy-adult questionnaire) requested information about patients’ oral health literacy. Oral health status (DMFT (decayed, missing, filled teeth) and CPI (community periodontal index)) was recorded via clinical examination. Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman correlation coefficient, Independent T–test, Linear and Logistic Regression Models served for statistical analysis (P-value<0.05).

Results: The mean age of the participants was 33.4 (SD=10.6) and 64.5% (n=130) were female. Mean OHL score was 52.3 (SD=19.8, range12-94). OHL was significantly higher among women than men (P-value=0.03). A significant association existed between oral health literacy of individuals and their job (P-value=0.03), educational level (P-value<0.001) and their number of oral health information resources (P-value =0.006). OHL was negatively associated with DMFT (P-value=0.047). Individuals with higher OHL scores had more filled teeth (P-value=0.04), and less decayed teeth (P-value=0.01) and missing teeth (P-value=0.003). No association existed between OHL and maximum CPI index (P-value>0.05).

Conclusion: OHL had a significant negative association with DMFT, however no association revealed between OHL and maximum CPI. It is recommended to increase patients’ OHL to improve their dental health status.

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