title: Dental caries experience: a two-generation study.
abstract: The life-course framework stresses the importance of social, psychosocial, and biological factors in early life on the development of later disease. From this perspective, the association between edentulousness of mothers and their children's caries risk has not been studied. Therefore, a sample of 6303 mother-child pairs was randomly selected in Quebec (Canada). Mothers (6039 dentate and 264 edentulous) completed a self-administered questionnaire, and their children, aged 5 to 9 years, were clinically examined. Bivariate analyses and multiple logistic regressions showed that edentulous mothers' children are more likely to experience caries on both primary [OR=1.7 (1.3-2.3)] and permanent [OR=1.4 (1.0-2.0)] dentitions when compared with dentate mothers' children. These results are independent of socio-economic status, age, gender, and children's oral-health-related behaviors. Our study is the first to show that edentulous mothers' children constitute a group at risk of caries. It also highlights the need for a better understanding of the mother-child transmission of risk.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Dentistry, McGill University, 3640 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2A 3B2.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bedos
authors.forename: J-M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Brodeur
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arpin
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nicolau
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004245:DMF Index; D003729:Dental Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D019229:Dentition, Permanent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007575:Jaw, Edentulous / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009909:Oral Health; D012307:Risk Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous