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Updated: Jul 9, 2026

Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Relationship of preventive health practices and health literacy: a national study
Sheida White1, Jing Chen, Ruth Atchison
1National Assessment for Adult Literacy, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education, Washington, DC 20006, USA. sheida.white@ed.gov
Objective:
To identify relationships between the health literacy and self-reported preventive health practices of US adults.
Methods:
Measured health literacy and preventive health practices for a nationally representative sample of adults (N = 18,100) and conducted probit regression analyses after controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, poverty level, insurance status, self-reported health status, and oral reading fluency.
Results:
Low literacy was associated with a decreased likelihood of using most preventive health measures under study for adults aged 65 and older, but not for adults of 2 younger age groups.
Conclusion:
The relationship between health literacy and preventive health practices varied substantially by adult age group.
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