Health Literacy and Oral Health in Primary School Students of District 14 in Tehran, Iran

Since students are the future builders and human resources of any community and have special roles in transferring the health concepts¡ maintaining and improving health are of utmost importance.
The aim of this study was to assess health literacy and oral health among primary students in Tehran¡ Iran. For this purpose¡ fourth-grade female students in all the elementary schools of district 14 in Tehran were assessed.
In this cross-sectional study¡ all the students (50) in the academic year of 2012-2013 were assessed by systematic cluster sampling method in terms of health literacy (knowledge¡ attitude and practice) and oral health. The data collection tool was a self-made questionnaire¡ the validity and reliability of which was confirmed. The available samples were analyzed using SPSS software version 16.
Totally¡ 50 students took part in the study. The mean knowledge score was 14.53 ± 0.5413; 20.8% of them had good knowledge and 54.2% had moderate awareness. The mean score of attitude was 18.76 ± 0.6409; 14.3% of the participants had positive attitudes towards oral health and 36.7% had intermediate attitudes. There were significant correlations between family size and knowledge score (P Discussion and The study results indicated a moderate knowledge and attitude of the students in terms of oral and dental hygiene. With more educated parents¡ positive attitude of students towards health care providers will increase¡ since the students’ main source of information was their health care teachers. It seems that positive results can be achieved through education.