Health literacy and oral health literacy: are they associated? A cross sectional survey among undergraduate students of tricity (Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula), India.

INTRODUCTION

Health Literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate decisions. As with general health; achieving and maintaining oral health requires one to be able to understand, interpret and act on various types of health information.

OBJECTIVE

The present study was conducted to determine the association between health literacy and oral health literacy among undergraduate students in tricity (Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula), India.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 490 undergraduate students studying in tricity, from randomly selected 10 colleges. The data was collected by a single trained examiner, using a structured proforma. The questionnaire consisted of two parts, REALM-66 and REALD-30. The subject was given a copy of list of words to be pronounced and score one was given for each word pronounced correctly.

RESULTS

REALM-66 scores showed that subjects with health literacy level equivalent to fourth- sixth grade is 1%, seventh- eighth grade was 64.4% and 29.6% for ninth grade and above. REALD-30 scores showed that 37.6% subjects had low level of literacy, 33.1% had moderate and 29.3% had high level of literacy. REALM and REALD scores were found to be positively correlated for qualification and genders.

CONCLUSIONS

To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting association between health and oral health literacy. As the correlations were not strong, thus the results should be regarded as a first step to provide evidence.