The life course approach: explaining the association between height and dental caries in Brazilian adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relationship between height and dental caries in Brazilian adolescents.


METHODS
A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect retrospective data. Of 764 eligible 13-year-old adolescents enrolled in urban private or public schools in a Brazilian town, 652 were clinically examined and interviewed. Data were collected on socioeconomic circumstances, family related variables, oral health behaviour and anthropometric measures (height and weight). Dental caries was measured by decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) index. The DMFT was categorized according to two levels of severity (low DMFT </= 6; high DMFT > 6) using the 75th percentile of the distribution as the cut-off point. Data analysis involved multiple logistic regression.


RESULTS
Adolescents who were the second or later child were 1.90 times more likely to have a high DMFT, whilst being a taller adolescent had a protective effect on caries experience (OR = 0.04; 95% CI = 0.00-0.79). In addition, adolescents from rural areas (OR = 2.74; 95% CI = 1.56-4.82), those whose mothers had less than 8 years of education (OR = 2.10; 95% CI = 1.03-4.27) and those who reported high levels of paternal punishment (OR = 1.60; 95% CI = 1.02-2.52) had an increased risk of having a high DMFT.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a relationship between height and dental caries experience in this sample of Brazilian adolescents.
Nicolau
Belinda
B
Division of Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada. belinda.f.nicolau@mcgill.ca
Marcenes
Wagner
W
Allison
Paul
P
Sheiham
Aubrey
A
D000293:Adolescent; D001722:Birth Order; D001827:Body Height; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population