Development of an oral health indicator in infants.
OBJECTIVE
To develop a simple predictive indicator for 1.5-year-old infants' oral health as an aid for maternal preventive efforts.


METHODS
The development of an indicator was based on the relationship between life style factors of the 1.5-year-old infants and the caries incidence of the same children at three years of age. Data gained at examination of the 3-year-old subjects were subjected to analysis with the caries-free information on the same subjects at 1.5 years.


METHODS
A community health centre in Hiroshima Japan.


METHODS
1575 children received an oral check-up at 3 years of age at a community health centre.


METHODS
The category scores of the six items which were extracted retrospectively from life style factors at 1.5 years affecting caries prevalence at 3 years of age were quantified and transformed into integral numbers so as to make up a total of 100. The sum of the six transformed scores was named an Infants Dental Index (IDI).


RESULTS
The IDI score was associated significantly with the dmft score at 3 years of age (r = -0.18 P < 0.001). When the subjects were classified into four groups with respect to the IDI score these four groups were significantly related to the caries onset between 1.5 and 3 years of age (chi 2 = 36.74, P < 0.001


CONCLUSIONS
The IDI developed in this study appeared to be valid so that it could be applied in the field of the community dental health to identity higher risk infants and direct more effective health education to mothers.
Kawabata
K
K
Department of Preventive Dentistry, Hiroshima University School of Dentistry, Japan.
Kawamura
M
M
Sasahara
H
H
Morishita
M
M
Bachchu
M A
MA
Iwamoto
Y
Y
D000465:Algorithms; D001628:Beverages; D001903:Bottle Feeding; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003149:Community Dentistry; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005544:Forecasting; D015438:Health Behavior; D006267:Health Education, Dental; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan; D008019:Life Style; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009909:Oral Health; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors