Oral health literacy of upper grade elementary school children / 대한구강보건학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine oral health literacy in a sample of Korean of 5th and 6th grade elementary school children. METHODS: Data were obtained from a convenience sample of 274 5(th) and 6(th) grade children from two elementary schools located in Seoul and Uijeongbu. The oral health literacy assessment tool for children of Korea (OHLC-K) takes approximately 11 minutes to complete, and consists of 20 self-report questions with a score range of 0 to 20. Item analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple linear regression were performed using SPSS 23.0 and testAn 1.0. RESULTS: The lowest and highest percentage of correct answers were found in “Definition of periodontal disease (19.3%)” and “Definition of halitosis (92.7%),” respectively. The mean score for oral health literacy was found to be 14.95 ± 2.83, corresponding to a score of approximately 75% correct answers. The correlation coefficient for Korean and OHLC-K scores was high (r=.73, P < .01). In the multiple linear regression, oral health literacy was associated with grade and gender. CONCLUSION: The present findings revealed that a quarter of the subjects were likely to misunderstand oral health information. Oral health education is indispensable to all children and, therefore, it is necessary to pay greater attention to children who exhibit poor oral health literacy.