These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: The relationship between caregiver functional oral health literacy and child oral health status.
    Author: Bridges SM, Parthasarathy DS, Wong HM, Yiu CK, Au TK, McGrath CP.
    Journal: Patient Educ Couns; 2014 Mar; 94(3):411-6. PubMed ID: 24308901.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVE: To describe the relationship between caregivers' oral health literacy (OHL) and the oral health status of their children in an Asian population. METHODS: A random sample of 301 child/caregiver dyads was recruited from kindergartens in Hong Kong. Two locally-developed and validated OHL assessment tasks were administered to caregivers with Hong Kong Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry-30 (HKREALD-30) assessing word recognition and Hong Kong Oral Health Literacy Assessment Task for Paediatric Dentistry (HKOHLAT-P) assessing comprehension. Their children's oral health status was assessed [dental caries experience - decayed, missing, filled teeth index - (dmft) and oral hygiene status - Visible Plaque Index (VPI)]. RESULTS: Caregivers' literacy was associated with children's oral health status. The HKOHLAT-P had a stronger association with children's oral health than HKREALD-30. HKOHLAT-P and HKREALD-30 remained associated with dmft in the adjusted negative binomial regression models (accounting for socio-demographics), Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) 0.97, p=0.02, and 0.96, p=0.03, respectively. In the adjusted model, HKOHLAT-P was associated with VPI (IRR 0.90, p<0.05), but no association between HKREALD-30 and VPI was evident. CONCLUSION: The main conclusion of this study was that caregiver oral health literacy was associated with their child's oral health status. A comprehension instrument had a more robust association with children's oral status than a word recognition instrument. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This study has implications for general public health education for designing community-level interventions.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]