EVALUATION OF ORAL HEALTH LITERACY OF PREGNANT WOMEN

Abstract

Aim Oral health literacy is the capacity of individuals to receive and understand the health information and services necessary to make appropriate oral health decisions. Low oral health literacy is associated with insufficient oral health knowledge and behaviors. The aim of our study was to assess the level of oral health literacy of pregnant women and their ability to recognize words on the REALD-30 scale, as well as their knowledge of the meaning of words. Methods 300 pregnant women between the ages of 18-45 who were admitted to the Obstetrics and Gynecology outpatient clinic of Ataturk University Faculty of Medicine participated in our study. The TREALD-30 scale, consisting of 30 words, determines the ability to read dental words. Participants received 1 point for each correctly read word in TREALD 30. A total of 0-30 points were scored. In addition, the word scores that participants knew the meaning of were evaluated under the heading TREALD-30-M. Analysis of the collected data was carried out in SPSS v26 program. Results The average age of the participants was 31.2 years and the average educational status was 13 years. It was found that 31% of participants had their first pregnancy. 66.7% of respondents were housewives and 9.7% were health workers. The number of words that can only be read was determined as 29, the number of those that can be read by knowing their meaning was 17, and the number of those that cannot be read was determined as 3 words. As the level of education increased, oral health literacy increased (p<0.001). Health workers showed higher TREALD-30 and TREALD-30-M scores compared to housewives (p<0.001). Conclusion In order to increase the level of oral health literacy of expectant mothers, health improvement programs are required.

Keywords

• Oral health literacy
• pregnant women
• REALD-30

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