title: The Relation Between Caregivers' Multiliterate Reading Habits and Their Children's Oral Health Status.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Caregivers' oral health literacy (OHL) assessment results have been found to be related to their children's oral health status. A further aspect of this relationship may be the role of caregivers' reading habits.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Our goal was to describe the relationship between caregivers' multimodal (digital and print) and multilingual (English and Chinese) reading habits, their OHL, and their child's oral health status in Hong Kong.
  
  
  METHODS
  A random sample of 301 child-caregiver dyads was recruited from kindergartens in Hong Kong. Data included sociodemographic information and caregivers' self-reported digital print and reading habits across two languages (Chinese and English). Caregivers' OHL levels were assessed by two locally developed and validated oral health literacy assessment tasks: Hong Kong Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry-30 (HKREALD-30) and the Hong Kong Oral Health Literacy Assessment Task for Pediatric Dentistry (HKOHLAT-P). Children's oral health status was assessed using two measures: dental caries experience (number of decayed, missing, and filled teeth) and oral hygiene status (Visible Plaque Index).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Bivariate variations revealed significant differences in mean OHL scores between caregivers with different reading habits (P<.01). Correlations revealed significant associations between caregivers' practices of reading multimodal (print/digital) and multilingual (English/Chinese) texts, their literacy levels, and their children's oral health status (P<.01). Adjusting for sociodemographics and all other reading habits in the regression analysis, the caregivers' habit of reading digital and print texts was significantly retained in the final model. Regression analysis revealed significant associations between caregivers' reading habits (digital Chinese) and their OHL word recognition scores: OR 5.00, 95% CI 1.10-3.65, P=.027. Significant associations were also evident for their OHL comprehension scores (digital Chinese: OR 2.30, 95% CI 1.30-4.20, P=.004; print Chinese: OR 2.50, 95% CI 1.40-4.30, P=.001). However, no significant associations were found between caregivers' reading habits and child's oral health status (P>.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Caregivers' habits of reading print and digital Chinese texts are significantly associated with their OHL scores. Their reading habits, however, do not affect their children's oral health status.
authors.affiliation: The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong).
authors.forename: Divya
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4275-5009
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: S Parthasarathy
authors.forename: Susan M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8325-8397
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bridges
authors.forename: Colman Pj
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9379-0889
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: McGrath
authors.forename: Terry Kf
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5810-488X
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Au
authors.forename: Hai Ming
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3411-6442
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Cynthia Ky
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4090-6205
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Yiu
keywords: caregiver; digital; health informatics; health literacy; medical consumerism; multilingualism; multiliteracies; oral health status; paediatrics