Associations of ethnicity/race and socioeconomic status with early childhood caries patterns.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this project was to evaluate ethnicity/race, household income and caregiver education level as predictors of (1) any early childhood caries, and (2) each of four proposed patterns of primary dentition caries.


METHODS
Between February 1994 and September 1995, five examiners visually examined Arizona pre-school children ages 5-59 months old. Self-reported demographic information including family income, caregiver education level and ethnicity/race were obtained at the time of examination. Multivariate analyses were conducted to assess the association of income, education and ethnicity/race with a child having any caries and with each of the proposed caries patterns seen in 3850 examinations.


RESULTS
Income and education were inversely associated with: (1) any early childhood caries, and (2) the maxillary incisor caries pattern. A positive association between these caries patterns and minority ethnicity/race status was also identified. Three additional caries intraoral patterns demonstrated more varied associations with socioeconomic status (SES), ethnicity/race and income and education.


CONCLUSIONS
This study supports the association of both ethnicity/race and social status with any early childhood caries. The patterns of caries were each found to be associated with specific and different socioeconomic-demographic indicators. The practical importance of these findings is that global measurement of ECC, without regard to specific caries pattern, leads to the potential for substantial non-differential misclassification of disease. The consequence of this is the potential for important ECC-SES-ethnicity/race associations to be masked. This, in turn, decreases the ability of surveys and investigations to accurately identify sub-groups of the population at greatest risk of developing ECC.
New York University College of Dentistry, Department of Epidemiology & Health Promotion, 345 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010, USA. wp9@nyu.edu
Walter J
WJ
Psoter
David G
DG
Pendrys
Douglas E
DE
Morse
Heping
H
Zhang
Susan T
ST
Mayne
D001130:Arizona / Q000453:epidemiology; D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017028:Caregivers / Q000193:education; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007180:Incisor / Q000473:pathology; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008437:Maxilla; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous / Q000473:pathology*; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001741:Black or African American