Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Social determinants of health (SDOH) include healthcare access, neighborhood/built environment, social context, economic stability, and education (including literacy and numeracy). These are known factors for health outcomes. The purpose of this research is to consider one SDOH category: general literacy/numeracy levels, with poor oral health indicators in a comparison of U.S. national and Appalachia data, a region with many poor healthcare indicators. METHODS: For this ecological study, literacy/numeracy data were from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) Survey of Adult Skills, 2012-2017. Oral health indicators were from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2012-2016. RESULTS: Of a possible score of 500 for literacy/numeracy, the mean national scores were 263.5(95% CI: 262.0, 265.1) and 249.1 (95% CI: 247.5, 250.6), respectively. The mean scores for all Appalachian counties were similar (262.2; 95% CI: 261.3, 263.1; p = 0.7258) and (247.6; 95% CI: 246.6, 248.6; p = 0.6872), respectively. However, within state comparisons had several non-Appalachian counties with higher literacy/numeracy scores than their Appalachian counties (Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia) while in Alabama, the reverse occurred. Overall, state-wide, dental visits were not significantly different from national levels in crude percentages; however, missing any permanent teeth and edentulism were higher than the nation. CONCLUSION: Health concerns, and oral health concerns in particular, are significant for the Appalachian region. However, dental visits and the mean overall general literacy/numeracy skills were not significantly different from the nation's, indicating that other factors are driving poor health outcomes within Appalachia from an ecological perspective.