The Relationship between Oral Health Literacy and Oral Health Behavior in Pregnant Women Referring to Health Centers in Shiraz

Abstract

Background: Health literacy is known as an important determinant of health and a causal factor in health differences between population groups. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between oral health literacy and oral health status of pregnant women referring to dental clinics of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.Methods and Materials: The current research was a cross-sectional study on 250 pregnant women aged 18 to 36 years who referred to health care centers covered by Shiraz University of medical sciences. All participants were evaluated in terms of literacy and oral health performance using OHL-AQ standard questionnaire, and oral health status were evaluated by DMFT and OHI indices. SPSS version 22 software was used for data analysis.Results: The participants were 250 pregnant mothers with an average age of 27.26 ± 4.63. In terms of education and job status, the group with a bachelor's degree with 46.8% and working mothers with 63.6% participated the most. The score of health literacy was 11/47±3/68 (moderate) and the score of health performance was 22/17±3 (moderate). The score of the DMFT index was 8/7±4/8 and the score of the OHI index was 1/17±0/64. A significant and inverse relationship was found between health literacy and health performance with oral and dental health status (P<0.001). The analysis of the regression outcomes indicated that the possession of educational qualifications was typically correlated with enhanced oral health status. The comparative evaluation revealed that both students and employed individuals exhibit oral health metrics akin to those of homemakers, yet they demonstrated superior dental hygiene. Furthermore, a higher level of educational attainment seemed to be inversely related to the prevalence of criminal activities.Conclusion: It seemed that with the increase in health literacy and health performance, oral and dental health indices decrease and the oral health status of pregnant women would be more appropriate.

Keywords

• key words: oral health literacy
• oral health behavior
• pregnant women