Dental caries in 3-year-old children is associated more with child-rearing behaviors than mother-related health behaviors.
OBJECTIVE
We assessed whether child- or mother-related health behaviors were associated more strongly with dental caries in 3-year-old children.


METHODS
Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed on dental caries' presence as the dependent variable with independent variables from the results of examination and a self-administered questionnaire of 396 mother-child pairs.


RESULTS
Dental caries of 3-year-old children was more strongly associated with child-related health behavior than mother-related health behavior. Of the child-related variables, "a habit of feeding in bed" [OR (odds ratio) 10.14; 95 percent class interval (CI) 1.80-56.97], "eating between meals three times a day or more" (OR 3.33; 95 percent CI 1.56-7.10), "consuming a sports drink three times a week or more" (OR 4.47; 95 percent CI 1.60-12.49), "having both home and professional preventive dental care" (OR 3.02; 95 percent CI 1.44-6.32), and "having professional preventive dental care" (OR 3.79; 95 percent CI 1.75-8.21) were significantly associated with dental caries in children. Of the mother-related variables, "brushing teeth once a day or less" (OR 2.72; 95 percent CI 1.19-6.20) and "drinking alcohol three times a week or more" (OR 0.38; 95 percent CI 0.16-0.93) had significant effects.


CONCLUSIONS
Dental caries of 3-year-old children was more strongly associated with child-related health behavior than mother-related health behavior. The results of this study suggest that encouraging good child-rearing behavior among mothers could result in better dental health among their children regardless of the mother's dental health status.
Kawashita
Yumiko
Y
Department of Oral Health, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan. yumiko-t@nagasaki-u.ac.jp
Fukuda
Hideki
H
Kawasaki
Koji
K
Kitamura
Masayasu
M
Hayashida
Hideaki
H
Furugen
Reiko
R
Fukumoto
Emiko
E
Iijima
Youichi
Y
Saito
Toshiyuki
T
D002675:Child, Preschool; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting; D015995:Prevalence