Oral health literacy: implications of multilingualism and multimodal texts

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between oral health literacy assessment results and recent reading activity in a multilingual population. METHODS: Two instruments (Cantonese translation of REALD-99 (a heath literacy test for dentistry) and an original questionnaire) were developed and piloted. Testing was undertaken with 84 caregivers of children attending the Paediatric Dentistry Clinic of the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Hong Kong. Exclusion criteria included inability to read Chinese characters and speak Cantonese. Association of socio-demographic status and features of personal reading habits were investigated. RESULTS: There were significant associations between attaining higher scores in the Cantonese word recognition task with ‘reading printed English material last week' (p=0.043); and ‘reading digital Chinese material last week' (p=0.007). Additionally, caregivers with higher monthly incomes and a history of reading Chinese digitally had a significant increase in success on the Cantonese REALD-99 scores (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Bi-literacy is a significant factor in oral health literacy in a multilingual population. Furthermore, ‘multimodal' literacy skills (such as reading digital material) are associated with oral health literacy. Consideration needs to be given to broadening the definition of oral health literacy to include multilingualism and multimodal texts.