Abstract

Abstract: In India, prevalence of dental caries is increasing due to changes in the country’s economy and diet. Oral health education and oral health services are not well established and the Government of India is currently in the process of improving oral health services. Oral health promotion with an oral health literacy approach is an economical way for developing countries like India to achieve better oral health outcomes. The study aim was to measure the oral health literacy of the adolescent population of Tamil Nadu, a southern state of India. The aim was addressed by a quantitative cross-sectional study measuring the oral health literacy using a self-administered survey in 974 adolescent school students (12-15 year-olds) from both rural and urban areas of Tamil Nadu, India. The descriptive analyses, chi-square tests and multiple linear regression analysis were performed using SPSS software. The oral health literacy survey indicated that only 8.1% of adolescent participants had good oral health literacy skills to prevent and manage dental caries and about 35% of the participants had poor oral health literacy skills to prevent dental caries. Multiple regression analyses indicated factors such as gender, mother’s education, type of school attended and Caste were significant predictors of oral health literacy. Scheduled Caste and Tribe populations attending public schools in rural areas were identified as the most vulnerable populations to be affected by dental caries. Oral health policies and oral health literacy intervention should be targeted to these adolescent populations in the Tamil Nadu region. Keywords: Oral health literacy, Health literacy, oral health education, Tamil Nadu, Oral health promotion, Adolescent’s oral health, Dental caries, quantitative study

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