DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE ORAL HEALTH LITERACY IN THE ELDERLY

Abstract

The emerging field of Oral Health Literacy offers distinct potential to empower individuals to improve their oral health outcomes. Numerous attempts have been made to design instruments which lean on the use of reading, comprehension and numeric tendencies to score oral health literacy, using literacy assessment in context to health related information. However, these fail to measure an individual’s performance in the actual application in the health context. Moreover, most research has been targeted at the adult population or caregivers of paediatric patients. Little attention has been given to the older adults (≥65 years old). When applied to the elderly generation, such an instrument must account for the knowledge and skills required to maintain oral health in the broader context of one’s general health and level of functional dependency. This study aims to develop a conceptually-based oral health literacy instrument for elderly adults in Singapore.