title: [News on prevalence of vicious habits in children].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of oral habits among children according to sex and location.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was conducted on 416 children aged 6-11 years old. The children were selected from urban and rural schools of Bacau and Iasi, Romania. Sex and location differences were calculated by using Fisher's exact test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that the prevalence of oral habits was 38,70%; girls (61,5%) were more affected than boys and also the children from urban schools 65,8%. Mouth breathing was the commenest habit (59,5%), followed by thumb thrust (21,5%) and finger sucking (14,1%). The presence or absence of a habit was recording by interview and clinical examination.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of vicious habits in children in our study was 38.70% - representative of the population prevalence of children aged 6-11 years in Romania.
authors.affiliation: Universităţii de Medicină şi Farmacie "Gr. T. Popa" Iaşi.
authors.forename: Iulia Marinela
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Stefănescu
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zetu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rusu
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D005260:Female; D005386:Fingersucking; D006184:Habits; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009058:Mouth Breathing / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012383:Romania / Q000453:epidemiology; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012574:Schools; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data