Development and evaluation of an oral health literacy instrument for adults

Abstract

Initial testing of OHLI suggested that it is a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate oral health literacy among adults, although additional work is needed to investigate the instrument's predictive validity and sensitivity to change using oral health outcomes with population groups known to be at high risk of low functional oral health literacy.

Development and validation of an instrument to assess oral health literacy in Norwegian adult dental patients

“…In the testing of TS-REALD, 19 % were found to have low oral health literacy [23], while the corresponding figure for OHLI was only 3 % [29]. However, the authors of OHLI state that their study population were young and well educated adults who were frequent users of dental care, which may explain the low percentage of people with lower health literacy levels.…”

“…The significant bivariate correlations were confirmed in multiple regression analyses. In the initial testing of the oral health literacy instrument OHLI [29], significant associations between health literacy scores and health knowledge scores were reported. In the health literacy research, many studies have demonstrated a relationship between health knowledge and health literacy [8][9][10].…”

“…The numeracy section consists of questions related to instructions specific to pediatric dentistry. The Test of Functional Health literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) [28] served as a template for the development of TOFHLiD as well as another instrument, Oral Health Literacy Instrument for Adults (OHLI) [29]. The reading comprehension is a 38-item test with words omitted from two passages, one on dental caries, and one on periodontal disease.…”

Oral Health Literacy Among Carers of Special Needs Children in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

“…Furthermore, other studies had used different instrument to assess OHL and also reported the relationship between OHL and other factors (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17).…”

Community water fluoridation: attitudes and opinions from the New Zealand Oral Health Survey

“…14 Uncertainty about CWF may reflect levels of health literacy or the ability of individuals to obtain, understand and act upon health information and to make appropriate decisions. 22 A direct association between caregiver health literacy and knowledge has been previously reported. 23 In addition, it has recently been suggested that oral health literacy is a fundamental dimension that confers oral health impacts beyond education and socio-demographic characteristics.…”