title: Association of oral health literacy with oral health behaviour and oral health status in Belarus.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the level of oral health literacy among adults in Belarus, a former part of the Soviet Union, and to analyse the associations between oral health literacy, socio-demographics, health behaviour and oral health status.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study. Participants: 281 adult (18-60 years old) dental patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The participants completed a self-administered questionnaire collecting information about socio-demographics and health behaviours, and oral health literacy test (the R-OHLI). Clinical oral examination followed the questionnaire survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among participants, 68.7% had adequate, 18.9% had marginal and 12.4% inadequate oral health literacy levels. Females and those with higher education were more likely to have adequate oral health literacy (p<0.05 and p<0.001). Participants with adequate oral health literacy had fewer missing and more filled teeth than those with inadequate literacy (p<0.001). This association remained significant after adjusting for socio-demographics, behavioural characteristics and oral hygiene status (p<0.05 and p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adequate oral health literacy was strongly related with better oral health status. Improvement of oral health literacy should be addressed when developing community oral health promotions.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blizniuk
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zaitsu
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawaguchi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D057220:Health Literacy; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009909:Oral Health; D002094:Republic of Belarus