IADR Abstract Archives
Developing a Clinical Scoring System to Assess Oral Health Knowledge
Objectives:
Assessment of oral health knowledge (OHK) can be a powerful instrument to identify knowledge gaps, which have influences over individual’s health decisions to use preventive services or to receive treatments. OHK should be evaluated in a patient-specific way to properly address the individual’s needs. This study focuses on developing a scoring system to evaluate condition-specific OHK in the clinical setting.
Methods:
Patients at NYU College of Dentistry were enrolled for questionnaires, which consist of open-ended questions. Patients were asked to describe definition, prevention, and treatment for two oral health conditions—dental caries (DC) and periodontal disease (PD)—and interviewers collected responses. Data analysis was performed independently by two researchers to identify common themes by categorizations. Disagreements and uncertainties were discussed and resolved by a third researcher. After establishment of final categories, a numerical value was assigned to each category to indicate the level of knowledge. A preliminary reliability of the scoring system was assessed by using a sample group of responses.
Results:
Overall, fifty-eight patients were enrolled, and survey response rates ranged between 74-100%. Final five, six, and five categories were identified for definition, prevention, and treatment of DC, respectively; ten, six, five categories were identified for definition, prevention, and treatment of PD, respectively. According to score system, a higher proportion of respondents had adequate knowledge about DC than PD (60.3% vs. 31.0%, p=0.0016), and higher proportion of respondents answered “I don’t know” for PD than DC (15.5% vs. 3.5%, p=0.02). However, there were always small number (range: 3-8) of those who had incorrect knowledge about each oral condition.
Conclusions:
This study identified clear sets of categories for DC and PD to measure the level of OHK that can be easily applied in the clinical setting.
Assessment of oral health knowledge (OHK) can be a powerful instrument to identify knowledge gaps, which have influences over individual’s health decisions to use preventive services or to receive treatments. OHK should be evaluated in a patient-specific way to properly address the individual’s needs. This study focuses on developing a scoring system to evaluate condition-specific OHK in the clinical setting.
Methods:
Patients at NYU College of Dentistry were enrolled for questionnaires, which consist of open-ended questions. Patients were asked to describe definition, prevention, and treatment for two oral health conditions—dental caries (DC) and periodontal disease (PD)—and interviewers collected responses. Data analysis was performed independently by two researchers to identify common themes by categorizations. Disagreements and uncertainties were discussed and resolved by a third researcher. After establishment of final categories, a numerical value was assigned to each category to indicate the level of knowledge. A preliminary reliability of the scoring system was assessed by using a sample group of responses.
Results:
Overall, fifty-eight patients were enrolled, and survey response rates ranged between 74-100%. Final five, six, and five categories were identified for definition, prevention, and treatment of DC, respectively; ten, six, five categories were identified for definition, prevention, and treatment of PD, respectively. According to score system, a higher proportion of respondents had adequate knowledge about DC than PD (60.3% vs. 31.0%, p=0.0016), and higher proportion of respondents answered “I don’t know” for PD than DC (15.5% vs. 3.5%, p=0.02). However, there were always small number (range: 3-8) of those who had incorrect knowledge about each oral condition.
Conclusions:
This study identified clear sets of categories for DC and PD to measure the level of OHK that can be easily applied in the clinical setting.