ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Health literacy is a topic that has been gaining traction in recent years, both on the policy and research agendas of many countries, however there is no evidence about temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and this topic. The objective was to evaluate the association between the level of functional literacy and the understanding of the Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD) through self-report and to associate the time of TMD complaint with the levels of functional literacy.
METHODS:
This is an observational, cross-sectional study, comprising 56 patients from the Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) clinic at São Leopoldo Mandic College. The DC/TMD questionnaire – axis I, a sociodemographic questionnaire, and tests of the Indicador de Alfabetismo Funcional (Functional Literacy Indicator - INAF) were applied.
RESULTS:
The outcomes showed that 85.7% of the sample were females and 14.3% males, mainly white (60.7%), with a schooling degree, predominantly from the 3rd grade of high school and professionally active. It was found that 22.5% of the sample were functionally illiterate and 77.5% were functionally literate, 30.6% of whom had elementary level schooling. There was a significant association between the schooling level and combined INAF (p=0.005), as well as between combined INAF and duration of complaint in intervals for jaw pain (p=0.037) when Chi-square tests were used. There is evidence to establish that the mean duration of headache complaints (in months) between literacy groups are different (p=0.001) when using the Student´s t-test. With these results, it is possible to suggest that lower levels of functional literacy are related to a poorly detailed perception of TMD complaints regarding the duration of the complaint and, mainly, to the association of headache with a complaint of TMD.
CONCLUSION:
Lower levels of functional literacy are related to a poorly detailed perception of TMD complaints regarding the duration of the complaint and, mainly, to the association of headache with a complaint of temporomandibular disorders.
Keywords:
Diagnostic; Literacy; Temporomandibular dysfunction
HIGHLIGHTS
Lower levels of functional literacy are related to a poorly detailed perception of TMD complaints regarding the duration of the complaint
Lower levels of functional literacy are related to less association of headache with a complaint of temporomandibular disorders.
The lower the ability to detail the symptoms, the more chances of misdiagnosis may occur.