The relationship between oral health and health literacy

Aim: Health literacy is extremely important in terms of theuse of health services and the ability of the society or the individuals to obtain, understand, evaluate and practice the required health information. Oral diseases are placed in the fourth most expensive diseases worldwide, and oral health is very important since dental caries affect most adults. This study aimed to eveluate the relationship between oral health and health literacy. Materials and Method:T his study was applied to people between the ages of 18-65 who applied to Diyarbakır Oral and Dental Health Hospital voluntarily. Our data collection tool consisted of three parts, in the first part, the sociodemographic cultural characteristics and oral care practices of the participants were questioned, in the second part, dental examinations were performed and recorded by our dentist researcher and in the third part "European Health Literacy Scale (HLS-EU-BR)" was applied to the participants for determining the health literature levels. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows (IBM Corp., Armonk, USA) 22.0 statistical program was used in the analysis.The hypotheses were two-sided and the p<0.05 value was considered statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval. Results: GEN-HL (General Health Literacy) scores were found to be problematic-limited at 43.8% of the participants. GEN-HL score was higher in those with high education levels (p<0.001), those who regularly visit the dentists (p=0.005), those who check their teeth with a mirror (p=0.011), and those who do not have a chronic disease (p=0.031). HP-HL (Health Promotion Health Literacy) score was higher in those without a prosthesis (p=0.049), and the TS-HL (Treatment Service Health Literacy) score was higher in those not having periodontal disease (p=0.039) and those without phobia of the dentist (p=0.018).The DMFT score was higher in smokers (p=0.007), those who go to the dentist irregularly (p=0.023), and those who brush their teeth occasionally (p<0.001). There was a negative correlation between the GEN-HL score and missing tooth (r=-0.204, p<0,001) and DMFT scores (r=-0.139, p=0.015).A negative correlation was also found between DMFT score and TS-HL and DP-HL (Disease Prevention Health Literacy) subgroups (r=-0.144, p=0,012; r=-0.117,p=0.041 respectively).No relationship was found between plaque and HL general and subgroups. Conclusion: HL scores of the participants were generally found to be problematic-limited. People with poor oral health also had low HL scores.We, as primary care physicians, must take more responsibility to increase the awareness of oral health in society. Keywords: Oral Health, Health Literacy, Sociocultural features