Oral Literacy Demand of Preventive Dental Visits in a Pediatric Medical Office: A Pilot Study

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the oral literacy demands placed on parents of young children during preventive dental visits in a pediatric medical office. Methods: Transcripts of audio recordings for 15 pediatric medical visits were analyzed to assess the oral literacy demand of the visit, as measured by use of terminology, language complexity, and structural characteristics of the dialogue. Parent-completed surveys were used to determine recall of dental concepts discussed during the visit. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated to identify relationships among these measures and parental recall of the visit. Results: Visits were interactive and used limited jargon and uncomplicated language. Oral literacy demand measures were associated with each other. Parental recall of the visit was associated with measures of high oral literacy demand. Conclusions: Assessing measures of oral literacy demand is a novel method for examining provider communication used during preventive dental visits in a pediatric medical office. Providers displayed low oral literacy demand when communicating with parents. Parental recall of dental concepts, however, was associated unexpectedly with higher oral literacy demand. Further research should examine a larger sample size and the effect of measures of oral literacy demand among low- and high-literacy patients.