Influence of oral health literacy on dissatisfaction with oral health among older people

Objective To investigate the influence of oral health literacy (OHL) and associated factors on dissatisfaction with oral health (DOH) among older people. Background Oral health literacy is a recent field of research that has been considered an important mediator between socioeconomic variables and oral health outcomes. However, there are few studies with older people. Materials and methods A cross‐sectional study was conducted with 535 non‐institutionalised older people aged 60‐100 years from Brazil. Individuals completed a questionnaire on general health, sociodemographic information and usual reason for dental visit. OHL was assessed using the Health Literacy in Dentistry questionnaire (HeLD‐14), validated in Brazil. DOH was the outcome of interest. Poisson regression with robust standard errors was applied as a statistical model to estimate bivariate and multivariable relationships of DOH with OHL after adjusting for sex, age, social characteristics and general health using the P‐value of ≤ .05. Results The overall prevalence of DOH was 21.1%. Multivariable regression analysis showed that older people with low OHL (HeLD‐14 score ≤35) had 1.28 times the odds of having DOH than those with high OHL (HeLD14 score >46), after adjusting for sociodemographic, economic and health outcomes. Conclusions Dissatisfaction with oral health in older people is a complex issue associated with OHL, social and behavioural factors. Health services should give greater attention to developing health literacy competences in older adults in order to empower them to achieve optimal oral health.