Abstract
The purpose of the study was to evaluate an oral health curriculum called an eBook for Oral Health Literacy© to determine its effectiveness for promoting child health. A secondary purpose was to describe and explain the design characteristics of readability, suitability, understandability, and actionability of the 17 chapters of the eBook. A third purpose was to conduct evaluations on verbatim representations (or literal facts) that are presented in the eBook chapters, including the gist representations that are not explicitly presented but inferred by the reader from the chapter information. Results found that the eBook for Oral Health Literacy© had acceptable, and in many cases, favorable scores, for the five design elements of readability, suitability, understandability, actionability, and gist comprehension. Ongoing dissemination of the eBook for Oral Health Literacy© curriculum has the potential to boost children who are “learning to read” and “reading to learn” about oral health hygiene and nutrition. Future studies should use one or more chapters from the curriculum as an intervention to test this educational premise as an explanatory basis for functional health literacy.
Highlights
The number one chronic infectious disease among children is dental caries
Analysis of variance and Tukey post-hoc analyses indicated that as students’ reading abilities and supportive literacy influences declined, students reported significantly fewer dental check-ups and lower sunscreen use (p
Two evaluators did an independent assessment of the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) for the eBook for Oral Health Literacy©
Summary
The number one chronic infectious disease among children is dental caries. Pain from tooth decay and gum inflammation keeps children from attending school. Health educators play key roles in developing the knowledge, attitudes, and skills that children need for practicing daily oral health routines for the prevention of infectious diseases. Analysis of variance and Tukey post-hoc analyses indicated that as students’ reading abilities and supportive literacy influences declined, students reported significantly fewer dental check-ups and lower sunscreen use (p
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