sepehr sepasi

Knowledge of the current state of oral health behaviors is essential for making oral health related decisions. The present study aims to assess the relationship between oral health literacy and attitude towards oral health, as factors affecting oral health behaviors, among the students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (AJUMS).

This is a descriptive cross-sectional survey. The study population consists of all students of AJUMS in all educational levels (bachelor’s, master’s, professional doctorate and specialized doctorate) in the academic year of 2021-2022 (n=6851). Of these, 363 were selected using a simple random sampling method. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire with 42 items and four sections of demographic information (3 items), oral health literacy (23 items answered as correct with 1 point or incorrect with 0 points), attitude towards oral health (7 items ted on a five-point Likert scale from 1 to 5) and oral health behaviors (9 items answered by yes or no). Data analysis was done in SPSS software, version 26 using descriptive statistics, correlation test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and Mann Whitney U test

Findings showed that 81% of students had high oral health literacy. Demographic factors of gender, age, and educational level had no significant effect on the oral health literacy, attitude, and behaviors of the students. The relationship between oral health literacy and attitude was negative and significant; students who had negative attitudes towards oral health had lower oral health literacy. No significant difference in attitudes was reported in terms of oral health behaviors, but the difference in oral health literacy was significant in terms of oral health behavior. 

Oral health literacy of medical students is inversely related to their attitude towards oral health, and directly related to their oral health behaviors.

It is important to use a standardized tool that has standard questions with the power to explain people's abilities and distinguish between them.  This research was conducted with the aim of designing, validating and standardizing the oral health literacy questionnaire among Iranian medical students. This is a cross-sectional study, which was done in the Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in 2021. Pre-validation and post-validation were used for validation. The quality of questions was examined by difficulty and discrimination indices. The pre-validation population included 50 students and 10 experts for validation. Post-validation population includes 354 medical students. SPSS software ver26 and Amos software ver24 were used. The tool is valid based on face validity, content validity and construct validity. Totally Cronbach`s alpha was 0.768. Explanatory factor analysis showed a model with four factors named “preventive measures”, “dental care”, “oral diseases”, and “care and visit dentist” which can explain 57.07 percentages of oral health literacy variances. Pearson correlation coefficient showed significant correlation between factors. Confirmatory factor analysis showed model is fit and the model fit indices were as follows: IFI= 0.697, CFI= 0.702, NFI= 0.717, AGFI= 0.767, GFI= 0.824, and RMSEA=0.07.Based on DIF and DI indices, this tool can show the students with correct answers and differentiate the students with high scores from low performing ones.  The current research tool has paid attention to different aspects of oral health and preventive and care measures. The approved tools include 3 factors and 22 questions.