Caries reductions between 1995, 1997 and 1999 in preschool children in Diadema, Brazil.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to assess changes in caries prevalence and severity in preschool children in Diadema, Brazil.


METHODS
Three cross-sectional surveys were conducted, using the same protocol, in 1995, 1997 and 1999. The first survey included children aged 5-35 months, and the second and third, children aged 5-59 months. Participants were selected from all children attending a National Day of Children's Vaccination; 548, 992 and 690 in 1995, 1997 and 1999, respectively. This approach was sound as uptake rates for all years studied were above 90% for children aged between 1 and 59 months in all three surveys. Caries experience was measured using the World Health Organization (WHO) def index. Time-lag and quasi-longitudinal analysis were carried out.


RESULTS
Time-lag analysis showed a marked and statistically significant decline in the prevalence and severity of coronal and rampant caries between 1995 and 1999. There were reductions of 36.5% in the prevalence of caries in 2-year-olds between 1995 and 1997 (P < 0.002) and 36.0% between 1997 and 1999 (P = 0.041). The mean def-s at the same age decreased from 2.0 in 1995 to 1.1 in 1997 (P < 0.001) and to 1.0 in 1999 (P > 0.05). The quasi-longitudinal analysis showed a statistically significantly increase in the percentage of children with caries between 1995 and 1997 and 1997 and 1999 (P < 0.001), but not for 2-year-old children between 1995 and 1997 (P > 0.05). The same pattern was observed for severity of dental caries.


CONCLUSIONS
Oral health in preschool children in Diadema improved markedly during 1995-99.
Bönecker
M
M
Department of Paediatric Dentistry, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
Marcenes
W
W
Sheiham
A
A
D000367:Age Factors; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric