AVALIAÇÃO DO LETRAMENTO EM SAÚDE EM DADOS FALTANTES DE ESTUDO EPIDEMIOLÓGICO EM GOIANÁ - MINAS GERAIS

Abstract

Objective: To investigate Oral Health Literacy (OHL) among guardians of children who provided incomplete responses in a questionnaire on their children’s oral health habits in Goianá, MG, and to correlate OHL levels with participants’ educational attainment and socioeconomic classification. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of caregivers of children from the municipality of Goianá who did not fully complete a questionnaire used in a previous study titled “Habits and behaviors related to children’s oral health and subjective factors of parents/caregivers.” Socioeconomic status was assessed using the Brazilian Association of Research Companies (ABEP) Questionnaire, and OHL was assessed using the Brazilian Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry (BREALD-30). Descriptive analysis and Spearman correlation test were performed to correlate OHL with participants’ education and socioeconomic classification. The significance level adopted was p<0.05. Results: In the study, 25 guardians participated, all of whom were mothers. Among them, 60% had completed lower secondary education and had incomplete upper secondary education, 15% reported completing primary education and had incomplete lower secondary education, and 20% had completed higher education. Regarding socioeconomic classification, 96% of the sample fell into classes D-E. The BREALD-30 revealed a moderate average score of 22.24 (+-3.85) points. There was no statistically significant correlation in the Spearman correlation test. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that the average OHL in the population in question was moderate, and there was no statistically significant correlation between OHL, education, and socioeconomic classification of the participants.