Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted with a total of 263 mid-aged and older adults living in the community with the convenience sampling method. Data collection occurred between November, 2015 and December, 2015 in Taiwan. We invited and recruited eligible participants for the study and inclusion criteria are middle-aged and seniors aged over 45, can communicate using Mandarin with clear consciousness, and no serious visual impairment. This study excluded participants who were illiterate. A face-to-face interview by the researcher was conducted which included a measure of oral health literacy-adult questionnaire(OHL-AQ), demographic data, and collecting information from participants about their oral hygiene behavior. The survey data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, and Pearson’s correlation.
Results: We carried out an analysis based on the different dimensions of original OHL-AQ questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into four domains and the listening domain had highest average scores (M=0.80, SD=0.31), followed by the decision-making domain (M=0.70, SD=0.24), the numeracy domain (M=0.67, SD=0.31), and the reading comprehension domain (M=0.58, SD=0.23) in this study. The oral health literacy scores of mid-aged was higher than older adults (t=5.981, p<.001). Participants with higher educational level (F=27.395, p<.001) and better financial situation (F=10.208, p<.001) scored higher in oral health literacy. The oral health literacy of those with no dentures or fixed dentures was significantly higher than those with removable dentures. Those presently in work had significantly higher oral health literacy than those currently out of work (t=-5.502, p<.001). The study also indicated that the oral health literacy of those with no dentures or fixed dentures was significantly higher than those with removable dentures (F=5.648, p<.001). In terms of choice of oral hygiene tools, those with a fixed brand that they considered suitable for them had significantly higher oral health literacy scores than those who did not choose specific brands (t=-3.339, p=.001).
Conclusion: Further research project conduct intervention of improving oral health literacy is needed. This study suggested the interventional strategies that aim at promoting oral health literacy among community mid-aged and older adults should strengthen their reading comprehension ability and should target those who with older age, lower educational level and financial situation, those who with removable dentures and did not choose specific brands of their oral hygiene tools.