Assessing oral health content in nondental professional association websites.

Abstract

Determine the prevalence and type of oral health (OH) content among nondental health professional associations' websites. Fifty-nine organizations were selected from three lists of health professional associations and categorized as physician-, nurse- and other healthcare-related professions. Eight dental search terms were used on searchable websites. Six types of OH information were collected. Websites were assessed for any OH content and comparisons made. Frequencies, chi-square, and Fisher extract test statistics were calculated. Thirty-five (59 percent) of websites had any OH information content. Twenty (34 percent) had OH authored content, 10-19 percent had OH webpages, interest groups, or initiatives, CE courses or webinars, or curriculum information. The term "oral hygiene" gave the greatest yield and "dentistry" the least. No significant differences in existence of "Any OH content" was found between each organization type versus others. Many nondental professional associations could increase OH website content and education with assistance from dental organizations.