Convergent relationship between functional oral health literacy, oral health knowledge and oral health behavior of some university students

Abstract Background Health literacy (HL) is the “ability to find, understand, evaluate and put information to use to improve decision making and, ultimately, improve health and quality of life.” Parents with limited HL are less likely to follow recommended parental oral health behaviors. Purpose We tested a theoretical framework designed to clarify mechanisms through which HL may influence parental oral health behavior. The framework proposed that HL: (a) has a direct effect on parental oral health knowledge, beliefs (i.e. self-efficacy; perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers), and behavior; (b) influences beliefs indirectly through knowledge; and (c) influences behavior indirectly through knowledge and beliefs. Methods We analyzed cross-sectional data from a randomized controlled trial designed to reduce dental decay in American Indian children (N = 521). Parents completed survey questions assessing sociodemographic characteristics, HL, and parental oral health knowledge, beliefs, and behavior. Path analysis was used to test the framework. Results HL exerted significant direct effects on knowledge and beliefs but not behavior. HL had significant indirect effects on all beliefs through knowledge. Significant indirect effects of HL on behavior occurred through self-efficacy (estimate: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.42, 1.83, p = .005), perceived barriers (estimate: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.29, 1.43, p = .010), knowledge to self-efficacy (estimate: 0.57, 95% CI: .31, 0.98, p = .001), and knowledge to perceived barriers (estimate: 0.24, 95% CI: 0.09, 0.47, p = .012). Conclusions HL exerted an indirect effect on parental oral health behavior, with knowledge, self-efficacy, and perceived barriers being the primary constructs linking HL to behavior.

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Association of oral health literacy with oral health behavior and oral health outcomes among adult dental patients

Indian Journal of Dental Research ◽

10.4103/ijdr.ijdr_337_19 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (6) ◽

pp. 835

Author(s):

Dolar Doshi ◽

JagadeeswaraRao Sukhabogi ◽

Madhuri Vadlamani ◽

Vijay Rahul

Keyword(s):

Oral Health ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Health Behavior ◽

Health Outcomes ◽

Oral Health Literacy ◽

Oral Health Behavior ◽

Dental Patients ◽

Oral Health Outcomes

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A New Comprehensive Oral Health Literacy Scale: Development and Psychometric Evaluation

10.21203/rs.3.rs-120369/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yue Sun ◽

Jing Sun ◽

Yan Zhao ◽

Aixiao Cheng ◽

Junhong Zhou

Keyword(s):

Oral Health ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Concurrent Validity ◽

Discriminant Validity ◽

Health Knowledge ◽

Item Pool ◽

Oral Health Literacy ◽

Oral Health Knowledge ◽

Four Dimensions ◽

Test Retest Reliability

Abstract Background: It has been widely accepted that oral health status is related to oral health literacy. The need to measure oral health literacy has led to the development of measurement instruments. This study aimed to develop a comprehensive instrument for adults and to examine its reliability and validity in China.Methods: A three-step design process was used. First, a literature review and expert panel discussion were used to draw up a 37-item pool covering oral health knowledge, belief, practice, skill and functional oral health literacy. The Delphi method was used to delete and modify questions in the item pool. The draft instrument was evaluated by nine experts and the consensus among them was calculated using the content validity index. The scale was then used to conduct a psychometric study among 370 participants from community health centers in Beijing. Construct validity, discriminant validity and concurrent validity were examined. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and test–retest methods were used to assess reliability.Results: The final scale included 30 items in four dimensions. The item–level content validity index was 0.90. Exploratory factor analysis extracted four fixed factors, and the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin and Bartlett’s tests came to 0.752, with the model explaining 35.21% of the total variance. The four dimensions were associated with oral health knowledge, perceptions of oral health issues, oral health practice and skills, and functional oral health literacy. The mean score of the lowest 27% was significantly lower than the highest 27% (p < 0.01), suggesting adequate discriminant validity. The associations between comprehensive oral health literacy scores and educational level, income and self-reported literacy level were significant (P < 0.001), showing adequate overall concurrent validity. Internal consistency and test–retest reliability were acceptable, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.72 and a total test–retest reliability coefficient of 0.979. Conclusions: Initial testing of the comprehensive oral health literacy instrument suggested that it is a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate individuals’ oral health literacy, with four dimensions for evaluating knowledge, belief, skill and functional oral health literacy.

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Oral health knowledge and psychological determinants of oral health behavior of nursing students

Journal of Health Psychology ◽

10.1177/1359105315595122 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 79-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Joanne CY Chan ◽

Luzy SH Chin

Keyword(s):

Logistic Regression ◽

Oral Health ◽

Nursing Students ◽

Health Behavior ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Health Knowledge ◽

Binary Logistic Regression ◽

Oral Health Behavior ◽

Oral Health Knowledge ◽

Psychological Determinants

This survey examined the oral health knowledge and psychological determinants of oral health behavior of 1019 undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students. Overall, most of the students perceived their oral health to be average, and their flossing and dental visiting frequencies were inadequate. Moreover, the students’ oral health knowledge was suboptimal, regardless of the type of study, and it was not significantly associated with oral health behavior. Binary logistic regression showed that toothbrushing self-efficacy and the type of study were both significantly associated with toothbrushing behavior. Furthermore, flossing self-efficacy and dental visiting self-efficacy were both significantly associated with flossing and dental visiting behaviors, respectively.

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