Assessment of the oral health literacy and oral health behaviors among nurses in China: a cross-sectional study

BMC Oral Health

Research

Zitong Wu¹  Meizi Liu¹  Wen-feng Chen²  Ran An³  Siyu Li⁴  Muhammad Sohaib⁵ 

[1] Teaching and Research Section of Clinical Nursing, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China;Teaching and Research Section of Clinical Nursing, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China;Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China;Teaching and Research Section of Clinical Nursing, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China;Xiangya School of Nursing, Central South University, Changsha, China;The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China;Xiangya School of Nursing, Central South University, Changsha, China;Children Hospital and Institute of Child Health, Multan, Pakistan;

关键词: Oral health literacy;    Oral health behavior;    Nurses;    Oral health;    Cross-sectional survey;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12903-022-02658-5

 received in 2022-07-30, accepted in 2022-12-09,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

PurposeOral health is important for general health; nurses are expected to possess good oral health awareness and work together for public oral health promotion. The purpose of this study is to investigate oral health literacy (OHL)and oral health behaviors of nurses, and explore the association between oral health literacy with demographic variables and oral health behaviors.MethodsA cross-sectional study in a tertiary hospital was conducted using a short-form Health Literacy in Dentistry-14 (HeLD-14) and a 16-items oral health behaviors questionnaire. Information about the subjects’ demographic details including age, gender, place of residence, marital status, marital status, education level, monthly household income, working experience, etc. were collected. Independent sample t- test, One- way ANOVA, and multivariable regression were used to identify the association of oral health literacy with demographic variables and oral health behaviors.ResultsA total number of 317 nursing nurses participated in the survey, with a mean OHL score of 36.72, SD10.531, 21.8% were categorized as good, 34.1% medium and 44.2% poor oral health literacy; monthly household income, self-rated oral health, brushing time, use of fluoride toothpaste, and regular oral examination were signficantly associated with OHL scores.ConclusionThe overall oral health literacy of the nurse population is at a moderate to low level. These findings may help to map and design an oral health education intervention to improve oral health literacy amongst nurses, especially nurses with low monthly household income and poor self-assessed oral health status. Nursing administrators and nursing educators should pay more attention to the oral health status of the nurse population.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022