Exploring related factors and validating an oral health literacy instrument

Objectives: Oral health literacy and oral health behavior have an impact on one’s oral health status. The aim of this study is to validate the oral health literacy instrument and explore influencing factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 244 clients was conducted. Three oral health literacy instruments assessed vocabulary comprehension, functional literacy, and interactive literacy, respectively. The content of the instruments was reviewed by professionals with expertise in oral health literacy and dentistry. Discrimination and reliability were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson correlation coefficient, respectively. Stepwise linear and logistic regression were used to select factors. Results: Every domain of the oral health literacy instrument displays discrimination and correlations with the others. The results from the Stepwise analysis reveal that clients with higher educational levels or younger ones are more likely to achieve higher scores in interactive oral health literacy (model R-square 0.21, p<0.001). Clients with higher scores in functional oral health literacy are more likely to use the correct interdental cleaning tools (p=0.04) and engage in daily interdental cleaning (p<0.001). Conclusions: In this study, the oral health literacy instrument has been validated and utilized to investigate related factors. Besides socioeconomic status, which has been identified as an important influencing factor, oral health literacy also proves to have a significant relationship to a subjects’ oral health cleaning behavior. The results of this study can be used to further explore the mediating factors that lead to oral health literacy and oral health behaviors that achieve oral disease prevention.