Amira Badran|Khaled Keraa|Mahassen M. Farghaly
The impact of oral health literacy on dental anxiety and utilization of oral health services among dental patients: a cross sectional study
Misr International University|Ain Shams University|Misr International University|Misr International University
abstract background low oral health literacy levels deficient oral health knowledge jeopardize communication dentists patients different communities study aimed examine impact association oral health literacy patients levels dental anxiety utilization dental health services methods crosssectional study conducted misr international university miu dental clinics study utilized structured interview led questionnaire administered second year dental students period two successive academic years 20182019 20192020 total 440 student interviewed convenience sample 440 dental patients including 269 females 611 171 males 389 questionnaire consisted four sections demographic section modified arabic rapid estimate adult literacy arelad30 tool measures ability participants read 30 commonly used dental terms questionnaire modified authors measure participants knowledge asking choose accurate meaning word based previous knowledge scoring dependent participants immediate correct pronunciation well comprehension word arabic modified dental anxiety scale amdas used measure level dental anxiety dental health service utilization measured using utilization oral health services questionnaire results one quarter 241 participants read 30 items areald correctly average percentage correct responses meaning dental terms 712 statistically significant association areald knowledge scores spearmans correlation coefficient 0008 p value 0872 statistically significant inverse correlation age mdas correlation coefficient 0146 p value 0002 areald scores inversely correlated time since last visit regression coefficient 0027 p value 0036 95 ci 0052 0002 conclusion within limitations study concluded oral health literacy significantly associated dental health services utilization dental anxiety related variables age gender