Introduction

There is an emerging need to improve oral health literacy (OHL) for good oral health outcomes worldwide. Many OHL tools have been developed, and the Indonesian version of Health Literacy in Dentistry (HeLD-ID) has the potential to be a valid and reliable oral health instrument for use in Indonesia.

Objectives

We aimed to measure OHL using HeLD-ID and to analyze the socioeconomic determinants of OHL among adults in Jakarta.

Material and methods

In total, 1000 adults representing five regions of Jakarta completed a 29-item OHL self-assessment using the HeLD-ID scale. The self-assessment also gathered socioeconomic and demographic data. The responses were graded on a 5-point Likert-type scale. A higher score indicated better OHL.

Results

The overall mean HeLD-ID score was 2.73 ± 1.03. The score was significantly affected by age, region, marital status, the number of dependents, occupation, the level of education, income, and the type of health insurance. Only sex did not affect the scores. The overall Cronbach’s α coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.958, and none of the CITC values were < 0.3.

Conclusion

This study showed that HeLD-ID can successfully be applied to assess the OHL of adults in Jakarta. Additionally, it found that the overall OHL was lower than that of a previous study, with many sociodemographic factors significantly affecting OHL.