The effect of social determinants on oral health knowledge and patient's bill of rights

Abstract

Health knowledge is a requirement in healthcare and having a higher level of health knowledgehelps to promote a satisfactory health status. Also, patients have specific rights within the healthcaresystem, but sometimes they are not aware of their rights. These issues are highly affected by social determinants. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to assess the social determinants of oral health knowledge and theawareness of patient's rights. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on patients referred to private officesand dental clinics in Tabriz, Iran. The study sample consisted of 500 patients and was selected by randomsampling. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data. RESULTS: The highest number of the patients (31.9%) were 25-34 years old; 62.2% of the participantswere female and 37.8% were male. Regarding religion, on a 1-10 scale, the majority of the respondents(26.6%) had scored themselves 8. As for oral health knowledge, 84.8% believed that reducing sugar consumptionprevents tooth decay and 96.9% declared that stopping smoking is effective in reducing oral diseases.Regarding patients' awareness of the right to access their medical records, only 40% stated that theyhave such right and 34.2% declared "I don't know", while 25.8% believed they have no right to access theirmedical records.