| Seq #162 | Friday, July 4, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 10:45 AM-12:15 PM Metro Toronto Convention Centre Room 701A, Symposium - Group/Division Sponsored | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Oral Health Literacy in Older Adults | ||||||||||||||||||||
Sponsored by: Behavioral Sciences, Geriatric Oral Research | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: Health literacy is a new concept linking literacy and an individual's ability to understand and act on health information, whether that information is in spoken or written form, with the ultimate goal being the maintenance of health or the management of disease. Limited literacy skills are hypothesized to be one of many barriers to better oral health facing older adults. Although literacy skills among seniors vary owing to education and access to resources, basic oral health information including complicated forms related to informed consent, history, post-operative instructions, drug labels, payment and insurance can be perplexing for older adults. Until recently, no methods were available for assessing oral health literacy. This symposium will present groundbreaking research related to the measurement of oral health literacy, looking primarily at elders. The first presentation addresses the pathways between literacy and health outcomes, and the issues and challenges in studying links between low literacy and poorer health in older adults. The second presentation focuses on the practice and research implications of a low level of oral health literacy among geriatric patients. The third and fourth presentations cover the current state of the art in the measurement of oral health literacy. The speakers will present their groups' work on the development and evaluation of word recognition instruments to assess health literacy in dentistry and tests of functional oral health literacy. This symposium is geared toward researchers and clinicians alike and its objectives are: 1) to understand how health literacy affects health outcomes; 2) to address new research in the area of instrument development and validation; 3) to learn how instruments can be used to identify patients who have difficulty understanding and using dental health information. Oral health literacy instruments can also be used in evaluating interventions, including clinical and oral health promotion, and studying the impact of literacy and lifelong learning on oral health. Supported by J. Morita Corporation. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairperson: H.P. LAWRENCE | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Back to the: Symposium Program | ||||||||||||||||||||
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