Oral health literacy and health indexes on adults in Tabriz

Abstract

Background: In new health systems with new needs, health literacy with have new rolls one of the very effective factors to get correct decesions fore them selves and their familys.World health organization (WHO) is difining the health literacy with cause have important roll to make healthy decisions a global discussion and one of the basic instruments to health promotion and one of the greatest of determinants of healthy. Today, prevention of oral health diseases with knowledge promotion and to put available facilities of primary prevention as part of the most important goals of who and one of the programs of who is in prevention non-communicable iseases and health promotion. Oral health literacy among adults promote health and make changes in lifestyle including changes in healthy habits, having free sugar foods, use a toothpaste containing fluoride that all above have important role in children oral health literacy and their oral health information and behaviors. Materials and methods: The aim of this study was to assess oral health indexes and oral health literacy among adults in Tabriz . The study was a household cross-sectional survey with gathering information by oral health literacy (OHL) and WHO oral health indexes questionnaire among 2310 adults (18-65 years) from 21 clusters in Tabriz, Iran. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software and included descriptive analysis (mean and standard deviation), Pearson orrelation, and student t-test. Results: The mean age of the participants was 41/6 ± 23/4 years, 51.2% of them were male and 48.8%were female. During the past 12 months, the edentulous index is 8.1. Having 1-9 natural teeth index was7.6%, 10-19 natural teeth index was 12.0%, 20 natural teeth or more index was 72.3%. Having any pain or discomfort in teeth or mouth were 61.2% and no pain or discomfort were 34.5%. About 62.2% of participants used tooth-brush and 23.9% used dental floss. Total DMFT was 15.5% and about 4.1% of participants never cleaned their teeth, 56.6 % of participants were cleaning their teeth once a day, 27% of theme are cleaning their teeth once a week, 5.7% of theme were cleaning their teeth 2-6 times a week, and only 9.8 % were cleaning their teeth twice or more a day. Decayed index were 7.9 % and missed index were 28.6 % and filled index were 11.8 % and CF index were 1.2 %. 13.7 % of participants reported tobacco smoking. During the past 30 days, 9.7 % of participants reported drink alcohol. 40.5 % of participants had enough oral health literacy and 23.6 % of them had moderate oral health literacy, and 35.9% of participants had low oral health literacy. Conclusion: There is a deeply gap between literacy and existing oral health statues of adults in Tabriz.