A tale of two instruments - developing and validating original, OHL instruments to measure functional literacy

Abstract

The goal of this panel on Oral Health Literacy is to situate this emerging field as a distinct focus in the rapidly evolving international health literacy scene. This panel provides an international scoping of the core concepts and research areas of Health Literacy and indicates their relationship to the overarching framing of our Oral Health Literacy agenda in Hong Kong. As one of three major international centres of research activity in the field of OHL, this presentation will describe the conceptual direction of our two nationally-funded GRF projects (one completed and one ongoing). The panel draws together our collective research experience and outcomes over two nationally-funded General Research Fund (GRF) and postgraduate student projects. The research team has, from inception, recognized that researching the complexities of literacy, oral health and the multilingual context of Hong Kong requires a large team drawing across multiple fields of expertise – Dental Public Health, Pediatric Dentistry, Linguistics, Education, and Psychology. As such the panel provides a broad overview of how these fields have been drawn together to create a transdisciplinary research agenda which moves our research into a new space of understanding how literacy and health intersect in a globalized world. Core notions such as functional and communicative OHL will be explored and the research implications for Hong Kong identified.