Impact of oral health literacy on oral conditions among different population groups( A systematic review and meta-analysis)

Document Type : Systematic Review

Authors

Department of Public Health Dentistry, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita School of Dentistry, Kerala, India.

Abstract

Background and Objective: Literacy in oral health is essential for promoting and preventing oral health issues. Evaluating oral health literacy enables the identification of opportunities to implement interventions at both policy and practice levels, aiming to improve oral health outcomes for individuals and populations. This review aims to conduct a systematic review focused on the association between oral health literacy and oral conditions. 

Materials and Methods: The search strategy aimed to retrieve both published and unpublished literature. The databases searched include PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, CINAHL, ProQuest, EBSCO- APA PsycInfo, and Shodhganga. After the search, all retrieved citations were examined to determine whether they meet the inclusion requirements. When possible, quantitative data was combined and analysed through a meta-analysis. The methodological validity of the included studies was critically evaluated using the JBI critical evaluation tool. The effect size was provided as a risk ratio or odds ratio for dichotomous data, while standard mean differences was used to depict it for continuous data. Statistics were used to evaluate study heterogeneity. In cases where statistical pooling is not possible, the findings were reported descriptively.

Results: This review incorporated data from 9,044 participants across 22 cross-sectional studies. The results indicated an association between inadequate oral health literacy and  individuals experiencing dental caries [OR: 0.36(95% CI 0.15,0.89) Thirteen studies, 4857 participants], Periodontal pocket [OR: 0.38 (95% CI 0.24, 0.62) five studies, 2651 participants], and tooth loss [OR: 0.57(95% CI 0.45,0.72) 2 studies, 1281 participants]. However, it's important to note that the studies included in this review were identified as having a high risk of methodological bias. 

Conclusion: Oral health Literacy is associated with poor oral health conditions; however, the quality of evidence is low.
 

Keywords

Acknowledgements: None


Availability of data and materials: Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no data sets were generated or analysed during the current study.


Conflicts of interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.


Consent for publication: Not applicable


Ethical approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. All procedure comply with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical issues (including plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, double publication etc.) have been completely observed by the authors.


Funding: No financial support was received for this study.


Author contributions: All authors contributed to the study conception, design, interpretation of results and reviewing. Data extraction and data analysis were performed by V.S.V. (Vattiprolu Sujay Vivek) and A.J. (Anju James). The quality assessment was performed by V.S.V, C.J (Chandrashekar Janakiram), and V.S.K. (Vijay S Kumar). The first draft of the manuscript was written by V.S.V and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. 

 

Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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