Oral Health Literacy and Determinants among an Elderly Community in Portugal

Helder Costa, Pedro Lopes, Maria José Correia, Patrícia Couto, Ana Margarida Silva, Joaquin Francisco López-Marcos and Nélio Veiga ()
Additional contact information
Helder Costa: Faculty of Medicine, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
Pedro Lopes: Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Faculty of Dental Medicine, 3504-505 Viseu, Portugal
Maria José Correia: Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Faculty of Dental Medicine, 3504-505 Viseu, Portugal
Patrícia Couto: Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Faculty of Dental Medicine, 3504-505 Viseu, Portugal
Ana Margarida Silva: Faculty of Medicine, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
Joaquin Francisco López-Marcos: Surgery Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
Nélio Veiga: Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Faculty of Dental Medicine, 3504-505 Viseu, Portugal

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 6, 1-10

Abstract: High average life expectancy has caused an increase in the elderly population and with it arises the need to characterize this population regarding their health and, in particular, their oral health. The purpose of this study was to assess and characterize oral health, oral rehabilitation, oral health literacy, oral health perception and quality of life in a sample of elderly participants of a physical activity program in Portugal. An observational cross-sectional study was designed with a group of 206 individuals. All the individuals were clinically assessed, DMFT, PSR and the plaque index were registered, and a questionnaire was applied in the form of a “face-to-face” interview with questions related to the quality of life related to oral health (GOHAI index and the REALD-30 scale). Of the 206 study participants, 90.3% admit brushing their teeth daily, 6.3% practice daily flossing, and 5.8% had a dental appointment in the last 12 months. Applying the REALD-30 scale, 22.7% have a low level (score 0–14), 43.7% a moderate level (score 15–22) and 33.6% a high level (score 23–29) of oral health literacy. The GOHAI scale reveals that 37.4% have a high self-perception of their oral health. A considerable proportion of the sample studied present a moderate level of oral health literacy. Therefore, educating each person about their oral health when participating in a specific health program and developing proposals for oral health promotion activities should be widely considered as a strategy towards primary prevention. Future oral health literacy sessions should be held in order to improve oral health and quality of life among the community.

Keywords: oral health literacy; elderly; oral health perception; REALD-30; GOHAI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/6/735/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/6/735/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:6:p:735-:d:1409427

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().