Evaluation of an eBook for Oral Health Literacy© to Promote Child Health: Readability, Suitability, Understandability, Actionability, and Gist-Based Message

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.