ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
This article is part of the Research TopicPromoting A Lifespan Approach to Oral Health and Oral Health-Related Quality of LifeView all 10 articles
Oral health literacy and oral frailty: A parallel mediation model of self-efficacy and health-related quality of life
Provisionally accepted
- Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China
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Objectives:This study aims to investigate the relationship between oral health literacy and oral frailty, as well as the mediating effect of oral health self-efficacy and oral health-related quality of life among elderly stroke patients. Design: A cross-sectional survey. Methods:Convenience sampling was used to recruit participants, and 298 elderly stroke patients completed the General Information Questionnaire, Oral Health Literacy Scale, Oral Frailty Screening Scale, Oral Health Self-Efficacy Scale and Oral Health-Related Impact Scale between January 2025 and July 2025.Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationship between oral health literacy, oral frailty, self-efficacy for oral care, and oral health-related quality of life in elderly stroke patients. SPSS 26.0 was used for descriptive statistics and correlation analyses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was then employed to test the mediating effects. Results:The mean oral health literacy score among elderly stroke patients was 67.74 ± 10.51. oral health self-efficacy averaged 47.84 ± 10.63, while the oral health-related quality of life score was 25.45 ± 8.53. The mean oral frailty score was 4.82 ± 2.77.Oral health literacy was negatively correlated with oral frailty.Both oral health self-efficacy and oral health-related quality of life partially mediated the link between oral health literacy and oral frailty in elderly stroke patients. Conclusion: Oral health self-efficacy and oral health-related quality of life exert parallel mediating effects between oral health literacy and oral frailty. Improving oral health literacy, enhancing self-efficacy, and improving health-related quality of life among elderly stroke patients will be important strategies for reducing the risk of oral frailty.
Keywords: Elderly stroke, oral health literacy, Oral frailty, oral health self-efficacy, Oral health-related quality of life, Mediating effect
Received: 15 Oct 2025; Accepted: 19 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Liu, GAO, LI and ZHANG. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhenya Liu, 1130169826@qq.com
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