A cross-sectional study on oral health literacy and its influencing factors among adults: II. Functional oral health literacy

Hyun-Jeong Ju; Hyo-Won Oh; Heung-Soo Lee

doi:10.11149/jkaoh.2013.37.2.81

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Ju, Oh, and Lee: A cross-sectional study on oral health literacy and its influencing factors among adults: II. Functional oral health literacy

Original Article

J Korean Acad Oral Health 2013;37(2):81-88.

Published online: 12 June 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.11149/jkaoh.2013.37.2.81

A cross-sectional study on oral health literacy and its influencing factors among adults: II. Functional oral health literacy

Hyun-Jeong Ju¹, Hyo-Won Oh^1,², Heung-Soo Lee^1,²

¹Department of Preventive and Public Health Dentistry, College of Dentistry, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Korea

²Institute of Wonkwang Dental Research, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Korea

Corresponding Author: Heung-Soo Lee Department of Preventive and Public Health Dentisty, College of Dentistry, Wonkwang University, 460 Iksandae-ro, Iksan 570-749, Korea Tel: +82-63-850-6851 Fax: +82-63-850-6851 E-mail: smagn@wonkwang.ac.kr

Received 25 April 2013 Revised 28 May 2013 Accepted 28 May 2013

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to examine the functional oral health literacy and its influencing factors among adults.

Methods

The subjects were 760 adults living in the cities of Iksan and Jeonju. A survey was conducted among 18-59-year-olds. Adults who were 60 years of age or older were also selected by convenience sampling and interviewed.

Results

In total, 36 percent of the adults tested on functional oral health literacy scored a seven or less on our survey, indicating that their functional oral health literacy was inadequate. Functional oral health literacy was related to age, educational level (especially, low levels of math) and family income.

Conclusions

Many adults have poor functional oral health literacy. Therefore, improvement programs for oral health literacy for adults need to be developed, taking into account their social characteristics.

Keywords: Functional, Health literacy, Oral health, TOFHLiD

References

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Table 1.

Result of survey to test functional oral health literacy (N=760)

Questions	N (%)
Availability of dental care services	699 (92.0)
Gargle method after using fluoride tablet	649 (85.4)
One-time usage of the mouth rinse	635 (83.6)
The required date for cancellation of the dental care services appointment	614 (80.8)
Recommended amount of toothpaste for a children	600 (78.9)
Suggested time to wait eating food after using mouth rinses	595 (78.3)
Amount of toothpaste on toothbrush for a child's one single use	583 (76.7)
The required day for cancellation of the dental care services appointment	546 (71.8)
Total amount of sodium fluoride	525 (69.1)
Availability of using toothpaste for a children	239 (31.4)

Table 2.

Distribution of functional oral health literacy scores

Functional oral health literacy
Scores	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total
N (%)	5 (0.7)	20 (2.6)	20 (2.6)	16 (2.1)	32 (4.2)	40 (5.3)	51 (6.7)	91 (12.0)	174 (22.9)	196 (25.8)	115 (15.1)	760 (100.0)

Table 3.

Functional oral health literacy scores by socioeconomic characteristics

Variables	Classification	Functional oral health literacy		F value or t value	P-value*
Variables	Classification	N	Mean (±SD)	F value or t value	P-value*
Gender	Male	372	7.70 (±2.24)	2.603	0.009
	Female	388	7.27 (±2.35)
Marital status	Married	483	7.16 (±2.32)	―6.176	<0.001
	Single	270	8.16 (±2.01)
Age	≤29 yr^a	223	8.36 (±1.85)	23.558	<0.001
	30-39 yr^a	176	7.72 (±2.13)
	40-49 yr^b	177	7.20 (±2.19)
	50-59 yr^b	120	6.85 (±2.19)
	≥60 yr^c	64	5.70 (±3.16)
Education level	≤Middle school^a	47	5.36 (±3.15)	31.063	<0.001
	High school^b	272	7.20 (±2.45)
	≥College^c	431	7.90 (±1.93)
Family income	≤199^a	114	6.32 (±2.85)	10.710	<0.001
(10,000 KRW)	200-299^b	174	7.36 (±2.26)
	300-399^b	209	7.64 (±2.26)
	400-499^b	205	7.94 (±1.87)
	≥500^b	50	7.98 (±2.10)

*Determined from t-test or oneway ANOVA.

^a ,b,cThe same letter indicates no significant difference (P>0.05).

Table 4.

Functional oral health literacy level according to socioeconomic characteristics N (%)

Variables	Classification	Functional oral health literacy
Variables	Classification	Top 25%	Bottom 25%	Total	P-value*
Gender	Male	169 (57.9)	123 (42.1)	292 (100.0)	0.020
	Female	142 (48.3)	152 (51.7)	294 (100.0)
	Total	311 (53.1)	275 (46.9)	586 (100.0)
Age	<40 yr	210 (67.7)	100 (32.3)	310 (100.0)	<0.001
	≥40 yr	101 (36.6)	175 (63.4)	276 (100.0)
	Total	311 (53.1)	275 (46.9)	586 (100.0)
Education level	≤Middle school	10 (22.7)	34 (77.3)	44 (100.0)	<0.001
	High school	99 (46.0)	116 (54.0)	215 (100.0)
	≥College	201 (62.0)	122 (38.0)	323 (100.0)
	Total	310 (53.3)	272 (46.7)	582 (100.0)
Family income	<200	28 (31.1)	62 (68.9)	90 (100.0)	<0.001
(10,000 Won)	200-299	69 (48.0)	76 (52.0)	145 (100.0)
	≥300	211 (61.3)	133 (38.7)	344 (100.0)
	Total	308 (53.2)	271 (46.8)	579 (100.0)
Marital status	Married	161 (44.0)	206 (56.0)	367 (100.0)	<0.001
	Single	148 (69.8)	64 (30.2)	212 (100.0)
	Total	309 (53.4)	270 (46.6)	579 (100.0)

*P-values by χ

² -test.

Table 5.

Discriminative power of functional oral health literacy items unit: %

	Functional oral health literacy
Items	Total	Bottom 25%	Top 25%	Contingency	Difference
	Total	(A)	(B)	coefficient	(B-A)
The required day for cancellation of the dental care services appointment*	71.8	39.3	97.7	0.538	58.4
Total amount of sodium fluoride*	69.1	38.2	96.8	0.535	58.6
Suggested time to wait eating food after using mouth rinses*	78.3	44.4	99.0	0.525	54.6
Recommended amount of toothpaste for a children*	78.9	53.5	99.7	0.486	46.2
The required date for cancellation of the dental care services appointment*	80.8	54.5	98.7	0.470	44.2
One-time usage of the mouth rinses*	83.6	57.5	99.7	0.465	42.2
Amount of toothpaste on toothbrush for a child's one single use*	76.7	53.5	94.2	0.426	40.7
Gargle method after using fluoride tablet*	85.4	65.5	99.7	0.419	34.2
Availability of using toothpaste for a children*	31.4	13.8	52.4	0.376	38.6
Availability of dental care services*	92.0	81.5	99.0	0.290	17.5

*P<0.01 by χ

² -test.

Table 6.

Multiple regression analysis results for functional oral health literacy scores

Functional oral health literacy
	B	β
Age	―0.471	―0.265*
Education level	0.224	0.114*
Family income	0.371	0.114*
R²=0.133 Adjusted R²=0.130

B, regression coefficient; β, standardized regression coefficient. *P<0.05.

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