Oral Health Literacy Tool
A tool to evaluate the oral health literacy rate of Latino communities. we conducted a qualitative and quantitative analysis to determine the lowered accessibility rate of oral health services.
The oral health literacy rate is defined as the ability of an individual to understand and critically analyze health-related information to make decisions and exert actions for maintaining and promoting healthy behaviors. The reason for the lowered oral health literacy rate is socioeconomic, cultural and linguistic barriers in accessing the oral health services.
The oral health needs of Latino communities are evaluated by administering survey questions. Based on the results of our survey, we might conduct an intervention educational session for about eight weeks. My primary and sole responsibility in this project are to design survey questions for gathering information about needs assessment in Latino communities.
The initial step in the process of designing a survey is an exploratory phase. I conducted a thorough literature review to understand promoting factors behind higher rates of diabetes, and awareness rate of Latino communities about its correlation with oral manifestations. Further analysis of our self-management diabetes program revealed that more than 75% of type 2 diabetes patients in the age of 60 years are not aware of the correlation between diabetes and oral manifestations. Most of them have dental caries, dry mouth, and periodontal problem. An informational interview was conducted with community members, staffs, and CEO of the organization to find out unmet dental services. we found that cultural barriers and socioeconomic barriers contributes to lowered awareness rate and thus results in disparities in accessing dental services. Hence, we decided our research question to evaluate the oral health needs of our target population by analyzing the correlation between diabetes and oral manifestations The objectives of our project were formulated.
Objective 1: Developing a survey question by applying constructs of health belief model within four to six weeks.
Objective 2: Pilot testing survey questions to validate evaluation tool within four to eight weeks.
Objective 3: Administering survey questions to our study participants within eight to twelve weeks.
Define target respondents: The study population will be a diabetic individual of Latino communities. we will analyze records of participants of our diabetes self-management programs for selecting samples. Our sample size would be of 50 with similar ethnicity, age, economic status, and educational attainment. We decided to exercise simple non-random probability technique to choose sample size. A sequential number will be assigned to all individuals of the sampling frame.
Method of reaching respondents: The participants will be notified of the oral health initiative program in their diet management sessions. The written consent will be provided to interested participants. Closed-end survey questions will be delivered to respondents to gather quantitative data. The written surveys will be distributed at specified dates in our face to face meetings.
The methodology of the survey: The health belief model emphasizes that certain behavioral changes will occur as a result of initiating changes in their attitudes, intentions and hence we decided to utilize constructs to frame our survey questions. As we plan to collect data on unmet oral health needs, analyzing awareness rate between causal and effect would be useful to educate the community and deliver health promotion programs. The constructs such as perceived susceptibility, perceived threat, perceived barriers, perceived seriousness, and cue to actions will be utilized in survey questions. Survey questions will include concepts such as a correlation between casual and effect, the significance of annual visits, the importance of having dental providers, and discussing oral health problems with their family, and friends. We will utilize 5- Likert scale in our survey questions to categorize sample by measuring the frequency of habitual behaviors and evaluating attitudes, and awareness rate. An ordinal data of the oral health needs of Latino communities will be obtained.
The baseline survey measures will analyze their knowledge about its correlation between systemic and oral manifestations, cultural and socioeconomic barriers, awareness of their genetic predisposition, social support and exploring their awareness regarding current oral health programs, community clinics, dental insurance plans, and dental providers.
To validate our tool, surveys will be administered at several levels. A preliminary survey will target diabetic population of our community. The purpose is to analyze external validity by evaluating the rate of comprehension ability, and knowledge of their correlation. The survey will then be pilot tested with our staff members who might be of similar educational background, age, ethnicity to determine the appropriateness of words, clarity, and conciseness of questionnaires. A final modification in wording and appropriateness in words will be done, based on preliminary results to have internal validity.