Oral health literacy status among adult population of Iran: A systematic review

Oral health literacy (OHL) is an important issue that directly and indirectly affects a person's general health. Inadequate OHL increases poor health outcomes and higher health care costs. This systematic review aimed to explore existing evidence of OHL levels in the Iranian population using a systematic review method. 

A systematic review was performed following the principles of PRISMA. The main databases including PubMed, SID, Magiran, and Google Scholar databases were searched with the keyword OHL and its Persian equivalents, without restrictions in publication time. Only descriptive studies that have reported any consequences of OHL in the adult Iranian population (18 years and above) were selected, and articles published in languages other than English and Persian and without access to the full text of the articles were excluded. Finally, the New Castle-Ottawa Quality Assessment scale was used to measure the quality of the studies.

Of the 724 retrieved studies, 68 studies met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Nine of the included studies evaluated the state of OHL. Most studies reported gender and education level to be associated with higher OHL. The literature was inconclusive regarding the association between OHL and dental treatment outcomes and oral health perceptions. Meta-analysis was not performed due to the limited data obtained in this review.

Evidence shows that OHL in the Iranian population is limited, and warranted the need for high-quality and intervention research by using different standard tools. Also, this review highlights special attention to the sub-groups within the population in oral health education.